(beeping and peaceful music)
- Now choosing a suitable monitor
and placing it in an appropriate position
is all going to help you reduce exposure
to some forceful movements,
exertions, and some awkward postures,
not to mention the overhead glare
that sometimes then makes us move our head from side to side
in again another awkward position.
This helps prevent possible negative health effects
such as excessive fatigue, eye strain,
and neck and back pain.
So let's just consider some of the following issues
to help us improve our computer work station.
One of those would be our viewing distance,
the viewing angle, the height in side to side,
viewing time, and the viewing clarity.
Now a lot of that's getting better
with better technology that's being released,
but if you're working on some of the older equipment,
some of these different hints
are still gonna help you as well.
Now you should choose a monitor and consider its placement
in conjunction with other components
of the computer work station,
including the keyboard, the desk, and the chair.
Now some potential hazards regarding viewing distances
is that if it's too long,
it can cause you to have to lean forward
and strain to see the small text.
Now this is really one of those things
that fatigues your eyes and then places stress on your torso
because the backrest is no longer providing support.
So the viewing distance that is too short
may cause your eyes to work harder to focus
and it may require you to sit in an awkward posture.
For instance, if you may tilt your head backward
or push your chair away from the screen,
causing you the type of outstretched arms,
you know this reaching for the keyboard type of position.
Now possible solutions are to sit at a more neutral
and comfortable distance from the monitor,
where you can easily read all the text
with your head and torso in an upright posture,
your back is then supported by your chair.
Now generally the preferred viewing distance
is recommended to be between 20 and 40 inches.
Now check that out,
we're talking about two feet to almost three to four feet,
depending again on the size of your font
and the size of your screen.
Now from your eye to the front of the surface
is how we're measuring this distance,
from your eye to the front of the surface.
And I know this sounds corny,
but if you've gotta get a tape measurer out,
in the long run it's gonna pay off.
Some other potential hazards when working
with your head and neck turned
to the side for a prolonged period,
is really that the fact that this really loads
a ton of stress on your neck muscles,
I mean it's uneven, it's unbalanced,
it's an unnatural posture,
and it's definitely gonna increase fatigue.
Fatigue normally then strains
the muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
Pain is the first symptom of this,
trying to remind you that something's not right,
but if it's not corrected,
this can become chronic
and cause some degenerative types of pathologies.
I wanna mention some possible solutions,
which is positioning your computer monitor
directly in front of you,
so that your head and neck and your torso face forward
whenever you're viewing the screen.
The monitor should be no further than 35 degrees
to the left or to the right,
and if your work primarily from printed material,
make sure to place the monitor slightly to the side
and keep the printed material directly in front of you.
Make sure you pay some common sense here
because you're just gonna make sure
that your neutral posture is focusing on
what you're gonna spend the majority of your time with.
So if it's your monitor,
your monitor's gonna be in the center.
If it's the printed material,
it'll be the printed material in the center.
Keep the printed materials and the monitors
as close as possible to each other,
so again you're gonna be then incorporating eye movement
less than you're bringing this head movement into play.