PC rage leads to swearing, tears and even injuries

The frustration caused by PC inefficiency has prompted 1 in 5 people to hit their desk, led to almost a million broken monitors, driven 1 in 20 people to hit something so hard they hurt themselves and even resulted in just under half a million injuries. Some people have even been so enraged they have thrown their computer out the window!

These are the results of a revealing new survey by The TechGuys, which also tells us how much time we are wasting waiting for our computers to do the things we want them to, as well as how long it takes for us to get frustrated. The majority of people (56%) get frustrated within 10 seconds of waiting for their computer to open a file, load a website or save a document. For 1.8 million people however, as little as 2 seconds is too long to wait before getting frustrated.

Over the course of a year, 2 in 5 of us are waiting at least 30 hours for our computer to do boot up, open a file or load a website. That's the equivalent amount of time required to learn how to fly! Collectively, it also represents 19 million wasted hours. Incredibly, 2.5million people in the UK are spending more than 25 minutes every day waiting for their computer to do something. That's the equivalent of 18 working days a year, per person!

But it's not just your own sanity and safety you will be protecting if you take better care of your computer. Electrical and electronic waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the UK - around 1.8 million tonnes are generated every year - and a study by the UN suggests the average PC requires 10 times it's weight in chemicals and fossil fuels to manufacture. Therefore if like 1 in 5 people you have owned 5 or more computers then you need to stop throwing away your PC when it starts to slow down and instead look to give your existing computer a boost. The first option should always be to upgrade a machine, not throw it away.

For more information visit thetechguys.com