Press
Symantec conducted a study that indicated that more than 40 percent of computer users had sworn at, kicked, or otherwise abused their computers. Another study found that 83 percent of respondents had witnessed such attacks. As millions of people experience severe computer-induced frustration, pent up anger and anxiety eventually get released into the office and home environment in unhealthy ways. Stress related to computer rage has been attributed to a massive loss of productivity and deleterious health effects.
As computers, Blackberries, and the Internet become the necessarily evils of modern life, the problem is only growing. According to clinical psychologist Dr. Robert Edelmann, computer rage is now more prolific than road rage.
To address this problem, a company in New York came up with a novel solution-a way to release frustration at the moment it happens. Their approach is to give you a foam axe to literally whack your computer whenever you're feeling the need to strangle someone.
The product is more than just a foam toy, however. Designed by computer scientists and psychologists, the product involves hardware and software that simulates the sensation of actually breaking your computer, complete with realistic graphics and glass-shattering sound effects. The effect is cathartic and gratifying.
Once relieved of your frustration in this harmless way, the product shifts to humor as a stress-relief tool, with six animated monkeys performing amusing office skits. Comedy writers from the Harvard Lampoon were hired to develop the office monkey characters, who have curiously become celebrities in their own right, attracting hundreds of friends on their MySpace profiles.
For more information, please contact Jamie Rosen, at (212) 400-7975.
For scientific background on the phenomenon of Computer Rage, go to Professor Kent Norman's University of Maryland Study on Computer Rage
To see the MySpace office monkey's profiles, go to