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Tangential public service announcement: Your forearms should not be digging into the edge of the laptop. If they are, you are positioning your hands and wrists
by jacobolus 7y ago
Tangential public service announcement: Your forearms should not be digging into the edge of the laptop. If they are, you are positioning your hands and wrists in an uncomfortable and inefficient way which has a good chance of leading to RSI. Irrespective of the smoothness of the laptop corners, don’t do this!
Ideally you shouldn‘t be putting any significant pressure on any surface with your forearms, palms, or wrists while actively typing. You want your hands “floating” with the fingertips resting very lightly on the key tops. But even if you must rest your hands or arms on something, please keep your wrists as straight as possible, and especially avoid wrist flexion or extension.
The surface of your laptop should be more-or-less parallel with the plane of your forearms, with the keyboard kept close to your torso so that your shoulders can remain relaxed with your upper arms hanging down at your sides. (This reduces the torque your arms put on your shoulder, allowing you to comfortably support your arms without any need for external props.)
If you have a tall desk and a low chair, and can’t change furniture, the way to work around the poor furniture design is to either (a) move the laptop to a low tray or directly onto your lap, or (b) prop the back side of the laptop up so that the base of the laptop is tilted toward you, with the keyboard parallel to your forearms. Keep the laptop (or whatever other keyboard) near the edge of the desk.
- idlewords 7y agoDifferent people type in different ways.
- jacobolus 7y agoYes this is true, but many of those ways put considerable strain on their hands and wrists and commonly lead to serious injury. If the forearms are digging into the corners of the laptop, that almost certainly means that the wrists are extended (bent downward), which puts the tendons/joints used for typing into a weak and injury-prone part of their range of motion. People should do whatever works for them and listen to their own bodies, but should be really careful with computer keyboards. I know many professional computer-users who did themselves serious harm with significant impact to their careers. If something hurts even a little bit, please don’t try to work through the pain.
- idlewords 7y agoSometimes the pain is caused by a razor-sharp laptop edge, which is the point of the post. I type in two main positions–on my back like an otter, or lying face down on a mattress. I'm guessing some people here type suspended upside down from a gravity swing. The computer case design shouldn't punish us for our typing choices!
- jacobolus 7y agoLying on your back or lying face down or suspended from a gravity swing are all fine (albeit perhaps not ideal for very long stretches). In none of these cases should your forearms be digging into the edge of the laptop. If they are something else is wrong about the position. I occasionally type sitting on a couch, lying on my back on a bed, sitting at crappy furniture at a coffeeshop, sitting on the floor, with one hand on a tall table while tending to toddlers, etc. In any of those contexts, it is possible to find a way of typing with straight wrists. This really has nothing to do with the computer case design; the previous poster should adjust his or her posture irrespective of laptop choice. RSI is no joke.
- idlewords 7y agoLook, it gives me satisfaction to rest the heels of my hand on the edge of the laptop. I feel more alive when I do it. Colors are brighter. Back off!
- proee 7y agoThis is a terrible argument to justify a poor design. There are plenty of times you need to use a laptop in non-ideal situations, such as a car or plane. The laptop should not punish you for having to operate it outside perfect conditions.
- jacobolus 7y agoThere is no condition where you should have your forearm digging into the front edge of the laptop. If you come up with a body shape and context and I guarantee you we can come up with a more comfortable way to position the laptop than anything requiring wrists bent downward. This is not about the design of the Macbook: the same goes for any other laptop, however smooth and soft its front edge might be.
- fiblye 7y agoMaybe you shouldn’t do it. But it happens. You also shouldn’t drive your car into other cars. But we still put seatbelts and bumpers on for those who do.
- tenaciousDaniel 7y agoI misspoke in my original comment. What I should have said was "wrists" instead of forearms. I don't place my forearms on my machine.
- ysavir 7y agoIt isn't justifying it. This is not an either/or situation. We can both have smoother laptop edges and be mindful of our typing posture.
- arcturus17 7y agoThis was not framed in any shape, way, or form as a justification to the MacBook design. OP just provided some related and useful info.
- _coveredInBees 7y agoGod forbid anyone who actually uses their laptop on their lap...
- jacobolus 7y agoUsing a laptop on the lap is a fine idea. It does not involve forearms digging into the edge of the laptop.
- nomel 7y agoSome people use their laptops in wider situations than others. Having had creases pressed into my forearms by the edge of my MacBook while using it in various non-ideal and uncomfortable seating situation, usually on the go, I can easily say you are not one of them. Implying that we’re being dishonest or somehow incapable of using a keyboard is a bit insulting.
- jacobolus 7y agoHuh? I don’t think anyone here is dishonest or incapable of using a keyboard. (Indeed, I’m convinced that idlewords is one of the most honest and generally capable people around.) I said people who are digging their forearms into their laptop edges are probably bending their wrists down in a way that puts strain on the tendons used for typing (not to mention putting direct pressure on the tendon sheaths for the finger flexors), so they should be careful about RSI.
- ctoll 7y agoWould you say he's holding it wrong?
- organsnyder 7y agoBefore I began to type this, I was resting my hands on the (thankfully hand-friendly) edge of my laptop, one finger on the page-down key. I probably do as much reading on my laptop as I do typing.
- scotth 7y agoLeave my the state of my wrists alone.