Computer addiction starts innocuously, but it can do serious damage.
I nursed a worn out baby pink satin sheet for years as a sleep inducer till I got myself a desktop computer. The machine was not on the bed but it exhausted me till I was ready to drop off to sleep. It seemed harmless. I wasn’t disturbing anyone. Working way beyond official hours, if it kept me happy and engaged, it could not be such a bad thing. Besides, mailing, reading on the net, surfing and working were so ‘unpostponable’.
I would get mails from friends who suspiciously asked what I was doing at the ghostly 2 am or 4 am hour and I would be surprised they noticed. But now I hear people programme their machines to show these unearthly hours as evidence of being sincere workers.
But then this is so 2000, a decade-old story. Today, the desktop is passé as the laptop has become the preferred bed companion, never mind studies warning that an increase in the temperature of the scrotum by 1 degree Celsius reduces sperm count by 40 per cent.
This must be humbug when you see the speed with which a laptop is whipped out in a restaurant, plane, waiting room or car. There are fringe benefits I am told. It shuts up the person sitting next to you in the plane. It ‘stabilises’ the mind and allows you to escape. It kids you into believing you are busy doing intelligent things.
Before you know it, the laptop has taken over your life — during the day and night. Tangible, it also makes you feel secure, loved and cared for. Most people who own laptops admit it is their most trusted companion, not just a techno accessory meant to crunch and store data. Rather, it stocks your movies, personal memorabilia, music, videos and connects you to people 24X7. It is the closest to being a throbbing-with-life entity. Never mind the backache, distorted posture, fear of its being flicked (it is one of the most common items lost or stolen), sleep deprivation and well, the fact that it is the reason for the decreasing frequency of what is supposed to go on between the sheets.
The ‘me and my laptop’ relationship is prominently played out among recently broken-up couples who turn to it with new-found passion. “This will not betray you,” not at least till the hard drive crashes, they are certain. This betrayal is not so painful too, for a technological dysfunction is far easier to forgive than a real person.
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That people work even in bed is now backed by survey data. Credant Technologies, a US-based software development and professional services company, conducted a study in May 2009 on “Laptop use in bed and security implications” among 300 workers in London. It found over a quarter of respondents were “so work obsessed they could not resist using a mobile device such as a laptop in bed before going to sleep”. Perhaps more scary was the data security risk.
“Forty-four per cent admitted they held important work documents on mobile devices of which 54 per cent were inadequately secured with encryption... and a fifth used a wireless network they knew was insecure.”
While you figure out the technicality of what is the best way to sleep over a laptop — to let it hibernate or be in sleep or standby mode, there is no denying that workaholics are increasingly preferring PCs to partners. There is no question that advances in technology have contributed to transforming normally hardworking people into incurable workaholics. Today an employee who stays at work till the last of his co-workers have left has been substituted with a person who is connected round the clock and therefore is a “reliable and valuable resource”.
Meanwhile, here are a few tips in case you are seeking remedial measures, and no, I am not suggesting drastic actions like shutting off the laptop by 10 pm and listening to soft music or reading a book to put you to sleep. Instead, get an external mouse and keyboard to free up arm movement, raise the laptop screen and buy a portable laptop stand.
And if you want a solution to “I want to sleep early, but can’t, since my body is programmed to shut down at 2 am”, I suggest you hunt for the worn out pink sheet, teddy, cushion or whatever it was that lulled you to sleep in your pre-laptop days.
[Taru Bahl is a Delhi-based freelance writer]
