Word: rsi
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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After nearly three years here and with virtually no warning, I was forced last week to hang up my keyboard. The reason is an insidious computer-related syndrome called Repetitive Strain Injury, for short RSI. But who would have guessed it? Sure, I work on a newspaper, I check my e-mail frequently and I concentrate in the social sciences, but my knowledge of computers is fairly limited and like the average student I don't spend more time at my keyboard than I have...
Several weeks ago, when I first heard of RSI, I was quick to dismiss it as a '90s phenomenon that could only befall computer addicts, attached to their motherboards by a virtual umbilical cord. Alternatively, I wrote RSI off as a trendy psycho-somatic problem for humanities concentrators desperately in need of an extension...
However, neither of these scenarios is the case. RSI can happen to anyone who does not take proper precautions, but, as Joshua T. Goodman, a fourth-year graduate student in computer science and a vice president of Harvard RSI Action says, "It's hard to convince people that it's a serious problem and that it can happen to them, until it happens to them." And in a way, this makes perfect sense. Few people know RSI exists, much less how to prevent it, or that something as seemingly innocuous as typing or using a mouse could be harmful...
...substantive: preventing the onset of this debilitating and depressing disease must involve a change in your work habits. You can have the most ergonomic workstation this side of Central Square and still get RSI...
Baratunde R. Thurston `99 is a user assistant for Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) and a Crimson On-line Director and News Executive. He talks to computers and can be found on the stoop of Claverly Hall blasting music out his window and giving his RSI speech...