Gaming is like any other hobby at its core. There are things that are great for you, and there are drawbacks. Athletics are great for overall health and fitness, but there are stresses on body parts and joints that can end in chronic pain as one gets older. Gaming and other more intellectual hobbies are great for exercising your mind. The drawback is those activities are less active and can lead to other types of problems. In this article, we will examine both the pluses and perils of gaming and let you determine whether these risks outweighed the rewards.

The Hand is Quicker than the Eye

This is a classic, but still compelling. People who game with a mouse and keyboard or controller have higher hand-eye coordination than people who dont. Its actually on par with people who play musical instruments and sports. Put a gamer playing something highly technical that requires a lot of high speed and precision button pushing, and it can be a mesmerizing sight to see. This can come at a cost, however. Repetitive stress injuries are easy to come by in the gaming world. When gaming goes overboard, you can develop inflamed tendons in your thumb and index finger, as well as Carpal tunnel and even tennis elbow. Game with moderation, and make sure to rest your hands once in a while.

Socializing

One of the upsides to gaming is there is plenty of opportunities to hang out with others who enjoy gaming. There are message boards, voice chats, and text chats dedicated to gaming, and whether you like first-person shooters or tabletop role-playing, you can easily find people who love the same type of games you do. The drawback to this is since all this is available on your computer or phone, you dont have to leave the house to get social interaction, which can lead to problems dealing with people who dont share your interests. Remember, there are physical humans on the other side of the gaming headsets, so try and get out in public to meet up once in a while.

Its a Mental Game

Gaming is a mental exercise. Multiple studies describe gaming as a mental training regimen for memory, concentration, and the brains ability to process audio and visual cues. Its not a passive hobby when it comes to brain activity. There are rules you need to remember actively, moves to learn, patterns to memorize, and strategies to consider. There are new games that combine all this and physical activity as well, so gaming is going a long way to improve the lives of gamers. There are still drawbacks, though. While some games do encourage movement, most do not, so the hobby is pretty sedentary.

Balancing Health

There are big health risks that come with sitting for extended periods of time, as well as just exposure to the blue light of monitors and cell phones. A sedentary lifestyle often leads to obesity, which increases your risk of diabetes and heart disease. Even if you arent overweight, sitting for too long and too often can lead to blood clots. In some extreme cases, people can forget to eat and disrupt sleep patterns or ignore personal hygiene. These things arent too common, but its good to keep in mind. Always keep your gaming balanced with the rest of your life.

Every company is responsible to manage their end of life electronics properly. It’s essential for compliance and company branding. It can help trim down possible expenses as well. Most importantly, it lessens the environmental and health dangers that e-waste brings.

To make the most out of non-usable electronics and nearly obsolete ones, you have to form a plan. Below are some steps you can take to deal with such items.

1. Let an inspector assess your obsolete equipment.
Before planning where e-waste goes, instruct an in-house inspector or hire someone to check the condition of each item. Ask him to report which items can still be reused according to their original functions. Furthermore, the report should cover raw materials that can be recovered. When reuse and recovery aren’t possible, let him detail which ones should be sent to e-recycling facilities.

2. Manage the data accordingly.
Regardless of the destination of the electronics, you should handle the data before allowing others to have access to them. Make sure all the pertinent data stored in each device have been transferred or copied to your new sets of equipment. Once done, destroy all the remaining data whether they’re still in-tact or in not.

3. Look within the company for reusing opportunities.
Reusing equipment will help the company reduce potential expenses. The savings aren’t that big but will still be beneficial to some employees. However, you should only reuse electronics that still have a few years left before they turn obsolete. Those that are already deemed obsolete but remains in good condition can still be reused as well.

4. Contract a company for e-recycling.
An e-recycling company has facilities and processes that enable efficient recovery of reusable parts and raw materials. When you hire their services, you don’t even have to find an electronics inspector yourself. The company is more likely to have one in their staff.

One of the best things about contracting an e-recycling company is that they’re bound to deal with the disposal once they’re done recovering materials. Although it’s helpful for your brand, managing e-waste disposal on your own can entail additional workers to employ.

5. Donate to a charity that will surely reuse the equipment or the recovered parts.
Donating formerly used electronics is a tricky thing. There’s the issue on health risks. In case yours don’t come with this problem, they’re likely to have efficiency issues.

There’s also the possibility that the charity may sell or donate the items to a less fortunate organization. Worse, they may ship the electronics overseas. Thus, before you decide to donate, make sure you screened the receiver properly. It’s also ideal to make an agreement regarding the use of your donation.

6. Sell the recovered raw materials.
Most charities don’t have the capability to process raw materials and reuse them. To take advantage of the recovered glass, plastics and metals, it’s better to sell them to a manufacturer that uses those as raw materials for their products. You don’t have to worry about your data because these said materials aren’t able to hold those.

Proper e-waste management entails cost on your part as a company. However, you can recoup your expenses by selling or reusing many of them. Moreover, the overall costs remain lower compared to the penalties from illegal disposal. You’ll also skip the bad rep that comes with unethical disposal.