Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group How long have you been using computers?

I'm curious to get an idea and or relationship between using computers and AS.

I first started using a computer (a TRS80) clone in 1980 and was using PCs constantly up until 2008.

So for me, I've had 28 years of computing. That's 28 years of bad posture, programming during the days and gaming most nights (when not playing ice hockey!). Add 2 more years (after stopping work) at very reduced exposure to my PC.

How about you? Do you think something else might have impacted your AS?

James

Hi Jimmy,
TRS80's are cool. I had a very used one given to me by my brother-in-law. By the time I started getting used to it, it wouldn't work anymore. It was really old when I got it though. I was 16 I think. I'll count this computer and the computers in computer programming class at school as a year's worth.

Then came windows. I started using windows right when Window's ME came out in 2000, and have been computing ever since.

So I have been computing for 11 years roughly, which includes DOS and Basic, Windows, and even Linux. I never tried a Mac though.

Do I think this has impacted my AS? Well, I'm not sure. In the beginning I wasn't on them all the time, because I was too pooped from work. After not being able to work, I was on them all the time though. So I will say yes, this probably has had an impact on my AS and posture.

I'm not too sure on what other activities could have done my posture in, because I was always very self conscious about my posture and appearance. I know having bone loss really did a number on me though.

Interesting topic,
take care,
James

I started on DOS based programs back in late '89 or so - used what I seem to remember was a Windows based program back in '91ish (awesome desktop publishing programme, wish I could remember the name), back to DOS in '93/4ish then back to Windows the following year.

Can't really trace my AS to that tho, not even my posture. By the way, since we all (obviously) use computers a fair bit, it's really important to stretch out when you're on one for more than 20 minutes or so. If you can keep your pecs stretched and your upper back muscles activated by sliding your shoulderblades down your spine a few milimetres to form a v and bringing your lat. dorsi under your arms (ladies, that would be your bra bulge muscle) it really does help combat computer stoop.

Hugs,

I remember TRS80s too. First computer I 'used' was in the early 70's when our school computer club used to punch cards, bundle them up and send them on overnight courier to a mainframe set up somewhere a couple of hundred miles away. The printouts came back a day later. At work it would have been DOS based stuff in the mid 80's I think, followed by Macs late 80's. I think it was being a typist for 10 years (70's/80's)that really wrecked my upper back, and particularly at the point where I switched from a manual typewriter to an electronic.

Clear back in 1978 I was working on a computer that my boss got, and started learning COBOL and Basic. Of course, there was no monitor, so everything had to be printed, like a typewriter. Then in 1981 I got a Timex Sinclair computer for my home.

That was a real trip. I went through 4 of them before I finally gave up on Timex and got a Texas Instrument TI99/4A.

Still have that one but I'm not sure if it still works. I wrote program after program in basic to do games, accounting, etc. It was more fun writing the programs than playing them. I eventually graduated to a PC, and have stayed there ever since. (Down with Mac)

Like Kat, I doubt that my bad posture is due to computer usage. In fact, I'd bet that it has helped me since I tend to put my display higher than it should be, and that forces me to sit up straighter to see it.

In 1972 I was in my Psych statistics class and I used the University's (Victoria) computer to connect with the University of British Columbia's computer to perform T-tests and F-tests on compiled Psych study data. I was impressed and even more so when at the end of the printout it said "Have a nice day". Wow, it was talking to me!
My next computer fancy was playing QBert ( http://www.tripletsandus.com/80s/80s_games/qbert.htm ) in the 80's, even in Hawaii, plugging in 25 cents a game in a darkened room.
My first computer class was in 1990 on 286s with the orange text on black backgrounds and I was hooked.
Our dart team had a regular game one Tuesday night and I said to one of our players who took computer courses "Hey Keith, have you seen that World Wide Web thing?" There were no graphical browsers then, it was all text and we were searching with tools like VERONICA and GOPHER and freenets etc. So much fun

I don't think using the computer has affected me too much but my hands do get sore after a while and lying down after a few hours is definitely the thing to do.

I wasn't born in 1980...!

Neither was I....!
You knew someone would say that

first computer class was in 1982, fortran. remember programming an apple to crunch some data in 1983. then when i went to grad school, every time the prof got a new apple for himself, the lab got the old one, which worked out well for us, because between 1985 and 1990, i think he was buying a new computer every few months, or so it seemed, a quick revolution of updates at that time. and we no longer had to go pick up our work somewhere else on campus, we even had a printer in the lab! (and don't think i didn't hear that dean! )

i do think all my desk work, sitting at the computers, pouring over data, and carrying a heavy backpack full of books around campus all those years certainly didn't help my back any. think it probably contributed to all those trigger points that the PTs and physiatrists have had to undo. once the problems became obvious, a good dynamic "seat" (my bouncy stool), good posture, and as kat said that constant stretching and checking of posture, better now than before in some ways, like i no longer get that searing neck pain once i got "a good chair".

only bothered my hands once my hands became a problem, once the arthritis / tendon-ligament problems developed. found ways around the dq tendonitis: use a mouse instead of clicking the laptop bar with the thumb. but when it was a torn ligament in the ulnar wrist, simply couldn't type with that hand for about a year....hence why i still don't routinely capitalize.....once the hands got better, noticed that this simple habit actually helps my hands. think its all about finding ways to minimize the bad and maximize the good.

No Alan he said 1980 not 1880 haaaaaaaaaa