5 Miles.

Would you jog 5 miles a day in £5 trainers?

Now - this is purely a theory, and I have no medical training, no statistics and I do sell Keyboards for a living but this is the thing..........

Most computers have a keyboard that is manufactured using the cheapest type of switching, membrane switches. No big surprise there, it's probably what you'd expect and it is what the market demands - cheap. Most of the wireless Keyboards and Multi-media keyboards, even the 'ergonomic' keyboards also use membrane switching. Membrane switch keyboards are not universally rubbish, some are good, some are less good, but they all have very little 'feel' to them and they mostly degrade over time.

If you're anything like my age, you probably would have first used a computer in the early nineties. It all looked too complicated before Windows came along.
I believe it was sometime in the eighties that IBM stopped making their Model M keyboard. One of the finest keyboards ever made and based around a very good mechanical switch.
It was also around this time that we began to hear about RSI.

Can we link these things?
There are many reasons for RSI. Indeed there are many types of RSI and names for RSI, I think Upper Limb Disorders is the current favourite.
A high percentage of cases are diagnosed as 'mouse induced' and this is increasing. The sheer amount of people now using computers has to be considered, and the amount of time spent on a computer by each person. It all adds to the problem. Stress, poor posture, badly designed workstations, lack of exercise, lack of breaks, the list goes on.

Returning to the problem faced by the jogger, the answer has to be No, because you don't want to ruin your joints. Now I thought I was the dogs dangly bits in my Dunlop Green Flash and indeed they've made a comeback, but no-one in their right mind would go and pound the pavement without a pair of good modern running shoes. And running shoes are very technical now, beyond my kin to describe even.

If that slab of Dunlop rubber is no longer good enough to protect our body from a paving induced battering then it follows, to my mind, that the few bits of rubber and plastic in a membrane switch won't continue to give adequate protection from a Blog Induced Skeletal Malfunction (BIMP - I've invented an acronym to strengthen my argument).

There is some temptation to give a long explanation of how membrane switching works, and of the various mechanical switches available but it would be more slog than blog. And let's face it, who gives a ****. What we care about is what feels good, and that is the point, a quality switch in your keyboard makes it feel sooo much better when you type. Go google the technical stuff, it's all out there from smarter guys than me. I just wanted to air my thoughts and invite feedback. Not everyone is going to agree, and personal preference is king. That's why we sell all types, so I don't even really stand to gain.

Thanks for reading.