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The Health Benefits of Disconnecting
December 4th, 2024: Many Geeks' Achilles Heel: They Don't Take Computer Breaks
On December 4th last year I explained why I was taking breaks from the computer. I kept reading about geeks whose blood pressure rose wildly or had become critically life-threatening (I read one such story earlier this week in Gopherspace) or had chronic issues with their lower body parts (I won't name examples of people, at the very least out of respect for privacy). One of the co-inventors of UNIX died due to bad health; if he had lived a healthier life, he might still be alive like Ken Thompson is.
I left my job at Sirius on December 2nd. All my shifts there were night shifts, badly or negatively impacting my health (humans are not nocturnal animals). That didn't really bother me at the time as I had gotten accustomed to that.
In "Geek culture" or "Hacker culture" it's common to work nights; I too (even before Sirius) preferred to work overnight and typically rested in daytime. But that tends to be not healthy, neither socially nor physically.
There has been plenty of political debate lately about health implications (harms) of "smartphone" usage and Social Control Media, especially with focus on children and schools (classrooms). Fostering an always-connected and always-on culture (with devices one can easily carry into the bedroom) badly impacts the health of young people, not just stressed workers who can be contacted by their employer/boss any time of the day, even when they're neither at home nor at the office.
Going out is one thing (or the condition of being "out"); being disconnected is another. █