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The Best Monitor Arms
A monitor that's positioned too high or too low—or too close or too far from you—is a recipe for neck and shoulder pain.
Unlike the stand that comes with most monitors, a monitor arm provides flexibility to position your screen exactly where you want it for proper ergonomics and comfort. It can also free up space on your desk and help your workspace look neater.
After assessing 10 monitor arms ranging in price from $50 to $335, we found that the Fully Jarvis Single Monitor Arm is the best option.
It moves smoothly into a wide range of positions and angles, holds monitors up to 32 inches in size steadily and securely, and is easy to set up. It's also backed by the longest warranty we've seen for a monitor arm.
If you'd like something that's more of a desk shelf to raise your screen, we recommend the Amazon Basics Adjustable Computer Monitor Riser Desk Stand as a simple, inexpensive option.
Our pickThis sleek and sturdy arm makes raising, lowering, and rotating a monitor easy, and it's backed by a 15-year warranty.The Fully Jarvis Single Monitor Arm can support monitors up to 32 inches and about 20 pounds, and it offers a wide range of motion and solid build quality. Although you can find nearly identical monitor arms that cost less, the Fully Jarvis arm was easier to set up, sturdier, and smoother to operate in our tests. It also has three color options and a much longer warranty (15 years versus other models' 10- or even one-year warranties), so it's an arm that you can expect to support your screen for years to come.
If you have a 34-inch monitor or one that weighs up to 25 pounds, the Ergotron LX Desk Monitor Arm will work just as well as our top pick. The LX has nearly identical side-to-side ranges, tilt, and pan and rotation capabilities as the Fully Jarvis arm—but its max height range is a few inches lower. If you're over 6 feet tall, the Ergotron LX Desk Monitor Arm Tall Pole is a better option. The Ergotron LX is nearly identical to the Amazon Basics Single-Monitor Mounting Arm, but Ergotron's warranty is 10 years, far longer than Amazon's one year of coverage. We think paying for a longer guarantee is smarter than prioritizing short-term savings—a monitor arm should last you many years, and the company that makes it should stand behind it.
If you'd prefer an installation-free way to raise your monitor, the Amazon Basics Adjustable Computer Monitor Riser Desk Stand is the best, most affordable option. This sturdy stand doesn't wobble or slide around on a desk, unlike most of the other models we tested. It's also highly adjustable, with three height options, and you get enough space beneath the stand to stash notebooks, a compact keyboard, or other small accessories. This all-black ABS plastic riser won't win any design awards, but it does the job and looks a bit nicer in person than in Amazon's product listing.
If you're willing to spend a lot more for a monitor stand that looks a lot nicer, we recommend the elegant Grovemade Desk Shelf. The 15-ply walnut plywood model we tested had a rich, warm tone with highly detailed wood-grain patterns, which contrasted nicely with the charcoal-colored cork legs and metal shelf. It's available in four sizes to accommodate up to two monitors, and it comes in nine different top materials.
Other wood desk shelves we tested had issues such as splitting wood or missing parts, but the Grovemade stand is as stable as it is handsome. (We did need to get a replacement for cork legs that didn't fit exactly, but customer service was responsive.)
Tech Neck Is A Pain In More Than Just The Neck
The typical average adult head weighs approximately 10-12 pounds. But did you know that bending it forward at a 45-degree angle to look at a cellphone or tablet can dramatically increase your chances to have "tech neck?"
"That's like having an 8-pound bowling ball as your head. Then you have 72 pounds at your elbow and 96 pounds on your shoulder," says Brian Langenhorst, industrial and ergonomics specialist at Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin. "I probably see tech neck on a weekly basis at businesses, schools and industry."
Tech neck is any form of chronic neck or shoulder pain, soreness, or stiffness caused by poor posture while using technology such as phones or computers. Looking down at electronic devices causes the neck muscles to strain and the shoulders to slump forward.
"People will notice some musculoskeletal fatigue," explains Langenhorst. "They may notice pressure on nerve supply, which then can have some referred pain, and pressure on nerve supply within the neck that can have referred pain within the arms and hands."
Over time, this position can deform your shoulder, chest and neck muscles and put pressure on your spine.
"You may have eight to 10 hours at work on a computer. Then you're home for two to four hours on a computer or on your phone. That's extremely fatiguing to your neck and body," says Langenhorst.
"With cellphones, we're having to bring them closer to maintain visual comfort," adds Langenhorst. "What I find all too often is many people don't move enough. They are staying in a static position for extremely long periods of time."
On average, people spend three hours and 15 minutes on their phones each day. Individuals check their phones an average of 58 times each day. Almost half (46%) of Americans believe they spend an average of four to five hours on their smartphones each day. A 2020 study discovered that Americans will spend nearly nine years of their life using their phone.
"Static positioning is actually more work and more effort than dynamic movement," offers Langenhorst. "Your body is going to ask you do you want to have visual comfort or postural comfort. The key here is that vision always wins because we change our posture to accommodate vision."
Tech neck also can cause issues beyond your neck and shoulders. Extra spinal pressure in your neck can lead to lower back pain, headaches and herniated disks (slipped or bulging disks). Altered neck muscles and poor posture also can strain jaw joints and muscles, creating temporomandibular joint pain.
"Just think about kids and when they're home. They have their tablet, desktop or phone at home for homework. Just look at their posture and see what their posture looks like. Are they in a pretty good position? If they're not, they're probably in all sorts of kind of goofy postures," says Langenhorst. "They can probably get away with it while they're a little bit younger and invincible. But soon, even in their early 20s, muscle fatigue is going to kick in, and we're going to notice some more strain and sprain. Make sure they're doing some consistent stretching and movement that we build into our day."
One tip Langenhorst also recommends is placing pillows on your lap allowing your forearms to be supported on those pillows. He also suggests trying to hold the phone at more of an upright, angled position.
"It's not great, but it's better than not being supported," Langenhorst shares. "As we age, the disks of our spine become narrowed, we start to lose some of the cushiness that's there. That can generate a little bit more pressure on the nerve roots that come out of the level of the neck. As you get older, meaning 45 and older, those disk spaces become narrower. That can put pressure on your nerves within your neck. Some people could notice a level of fatigue and discomfort, then generating into pain. Pain can then generate into disability."
Other ways to improve your computer posture include:
• Place your screen 20-30 inches away from your eyes (about an arm's length).
• Use a computer monitor or laptop stand to help elevate your screen to the right level (or stack some books).
• Sit with your head, hips and spine stacked. "My eye height should be about 1/2 inch to 1½ inches higher than the screen because we have a 15-degree eye gaze. When I'm looking straight ahead, my neck muscles and my back muscles and my upper shoulder muscles get a chance to relax. This prevents putting uneven pressures on the nerve supply or the muscle groups," adds Langenhorst.
• Keep your wrists straight and your elbows bent at about 90-degree angles.
• Keep your knees in line with your hips and your feet flat on the floor.
"The greatest challenge is we're not working or staying in a neutral or straight posture. I want to be able to have my head in an upright position, ears over shoulders, shoulders over hips," he says.
Neck pain is the fourth leading cause of disability, with an annual prevalence rate exceeding 30%. Most episodes of acute neck pain will resolve with or without treatment, but nearly 50% of people will continue to experience some degree of pain or frequent occurrences.
©2024 Mayo Clinic News Network. Visit newsnetwork.Mayoclinic.Org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The Best Budget Monitors
We used each model for typical desktop work for a few hours, noting the sturdiness and quality of the stand and how easy the monitor was to adjust using the on-screen controls. We then tested the accuracy of each monitor's color, using the same methodology we use in our 4K-monitor testing. A screen with too-bright, oversaturated color might look good to the naked eye, but if it isn't representing colors accurately, photos, videos, and web pages won't look the way their creators intended. These tests also allowed us to find deficiencies in cheaper displays, such as whether the brightness was actually as bright as the manufacturers claimed.
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