Today many people own a laptop, but I hardly doubt it that most of them ever wondered if their laptop is really safe and convenient to use as it looks like. I believe it never crossed your mind that your spine may be suffering from the position you sit in when you work on it. Or maybe, that the heat the laptop produces may burn your legs or God forbid, your private parts (because who doesn’t want to lay down with the laptop in the lap with a good movie on). Yes, these are common problems that happen to people, so it’s only useful to know the basics of using an ergonomic laptop stand for the safest way to use your laptop.
You probably are sceptical about the aforementioned situations, so I am going to explain them extensively so that it makes more sense to you. I am also going to explain to you how an ergonomic laptop stand can change the way you use your laptop and even extend its life.
Cornell University has an Ergonomics department that did a thorough research on laptop ergonomics. They came to the conclusion that the fixed design of laptops is actually a huge problem, although many may think that it’s rather convenient. The thing is that you can’t adjust the keyboard to the position you’re sitting in, so it’s actually the laptop that dictates how are you going to sit in order to work on it. If you adjust the keyboard to the height of the wrist then the screen won’t be on adequate height and vice versa. However, this is not an unsolvable problem and it most certainly doesn’t imply that you should stop using your laptop for good. An ergonomic laptop stand serves exactly the purpose – it enables you to lift the laptop on an adequate height for your wrists and for looking at the screen.
Another common problem is the heat that a laptop produces. This heat can not only cause problems for your skin (like cause severe burnouts) but it also burdens the machine itself; eventually, the laptop will die from overheating. It’s normal for it to produce heat, and that heat usually is vented out from the bottom of the machine. However, when your laptop is placed on a completely solid and closed surface such as your lap, that ventilation effectiveness is completely reduced. When you lift it up on a laptop stand, the ventilation is far better and you’ll notice that your laptop simply doesn’t get too hot to hold even after a few hours of work.
Bottom line is, the laptop as an electronic device wasn’t designed as an ergonomic unit; problems like overheating that can cost you the actual laptop and inadequacy of wrist position are more than enough to make you consider buying an ergonomic laptop stand. Or, as Cornell University Ergonomics Department would say: “Be good to your body”.
