Working in IT tech support, I’ve seen my fair share of absolutely filthy computers coming in for service. As someone who keeps my own stuff pristinely clean, I can’t fathom how others live with the grime that’s on their laptops. Dust and food particles all over the keyboard deck; fingerprints and oil on the screen surface. Needless to say, I wear gloves before I handle the laptops. Even before these COVID times.
I think there’s a spectrum of bothersome in relation to how dirty something is to people. Everybody can objectively attest to what clean is. No one would accept a brand new out of the box computer that’s full of dust. However, filthiness level is entirely subjective. A single smudge would bother the heck out of me, while others can live with a display full of fingerprints.
On that note, I always wondered why people feel the need to touch their screens (hence the fingerprints left over). Then I realized most are not. The dirt on the screen is actually caused by the keyboard deck. You type out an email with your grubby fingers whilst in the middle of eating a sandwich. That oily imprint then gets transferred to the screen when the laptop is closed. Mystery solved. The rest of you are filthy and dirty.
Every laptop that comes into my hands at work, I clean them up nicely before commencing service. Not because I’m doing the users a solid. It’s more for me because I don’t like working on a dirty laptop. Indeed, many of them remark on how clean their computer is upon returning to them. Like I said, we can all objectively agree to what absolute clean is. It’s the level of unclean that’s seemingly in dispute!
You shall not pass!