Computer rage is a heightened physiological

Physiology

Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

 response with associated feelings of anger

Anger

Anger is an automatic response to ill treatment. It is the way a person indicates he or she will not tolerate certain types of behaviour. It is a feedback mechanism in which an unpleasant stimulus is met with an unpleasant response....

 and frustration

Frustration

This article concerns the field of psychology. The term frustration does, however, also concern physics. In this context, the term is treated in a different article, geometric frustration....

 resulting from using a computer or other complex electronic device.
It may result in the physical assault of the computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

 or similar item, possibly leading to the device incurring more damage than it had before.

Manifestation and causes

Computer rage may manifest itself in verbal abuse

Verbal abuse

Verbal abuse is best described as a negative defining statement told to you or about you; or by withholding any response thus defining the target as non-existant...

 and occasionally physical violence towards the object, in some cases violent actions towards the hardware itself, usually either thumping the keyboard

Keyboard (computing)

In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...

, shaking the monitor or banging the mouse

Mouse (computing)

In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons...

 on the table/desk. In online interactions, enraged persons may flame and abuse other users, shouting at them through headsets, sending rude messages, or rage quit (exiting a game prematurely out of anger).
Computer rage may be caused by distress due to a hardware or software problem which the enraged person is unable to correct. Persons may bang or kick the computer in an attempt to get it to function normally, though this action carries the distinct risk of destroying the computer's hard disk drive via a head crash

Head crash

A head crash is a hard-disk failure that occurs when a read–write head of a hard disk drive comes in contact with its rotating platter, resulting in permanent and usually irreparable damage to the magnetic media on the platter surface....

. Another common occurrence of computer rage is whilst playing computer games, mainly first-person shooter

First-person shooter

First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...

s and mmorpg

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....

s. Computer rage is normally induced when a gamer either fails an objective or is killed repeatedly.

Tech support personnel and systems administrators may be subjected to customer's anger at a malfunctioning system, commonly including the aforementioned verbal abuse.

Blue Screen of Death

Blue Screen of Death

To forse a BSOD Open regedit.exe,Then search: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\i8042prt\ParametersThen make a new DWORD called "CrashOnCtrlScroll" And set the value to 1....

 is a very common cause of computer rage.

See also

• Rage (emotion)
  Rage (emotion)
  Rage is a feeling of intense anger. It is associated with the Fight-or-flight response and oftentimes activated in response to an external cue, such as the murder of a loved one. The phrase, 'thrown into a fit of rage,' expresses the immediate nature of rage that occurs before deliberation. If left...
  
  
• Air rage
  Air rage
  Air rage is the general term for disruptive and/or violent behavior perpetrated by passengers and crew of aircraft, typically during flight. The first noted, or recorded air rage event in Britain was May 15, 1990, on a flight from Grand Canaria to Gatwick airport by Miss Theresa Sheffield.In the...
  
  
• Mouse rage
  Mouse rage
  Mouse rage is a particular type of computer rage. It is a behavioural response provoked by failure or unexpected results observed when using a computer...
  
  
• Road rage
  Road rage
  Road rage is an aggressive or angry behavior by a driver of an automobile or other motor vehicle. Such behavior might include rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats. Road rage can lead to altercations, assaults, and collisions...
  
  
• Technostress
  Technostress
  Technostress is the negative psychological link between people and the introduction of new technologies. Whereas ergonomics is the study of how humans react and physically fit with machines in their environment, technostress is, in many ways, the resistance of change that accompanies newly...
  
  
• Trolley rage
• Wrap rage
  Wrap rage
  Wrap rage, also called package rage, is the common name for heightened levels of anger and frustration resulting from the inability to open hard-to-remove packaging, particularly some heat sealed plastic blister packs and clamshells...
  
  

External links

• www.computer-rage.org by Kent Norman
  Kent Norman
  Kent L. Norman is an American cognitive psychologist and an expert on Computer Rage. He graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1969 and earned a Ph.D...
  
  
• Survey on Computer Rage by the Laboratory for Automation Psychology
  Laboratory for Automation Psychology
  The Laboratory for Automation Psychology was founded in 1983 by Kent Norman and Nancy Anderson as an affiliate of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies .It is housed in the University of Maryland, College Park's...