Computer 'sick' days revealed

Unwanted mail regularly clogs people's inboxes

Personal computers in Northern Ireland take more sick days than their owners, according to research.

The average computer has nine sick days a year, six of which are wasted while their owners battle junk e-mail and three days are lost due to viruses.

By comparison, workers take an average of seven sick days a year.

According to research commissioned by Yahoo, the cost to the UK economy is £6.7bn a year, with 2% of the average worker's wage wasted on spam fighting chores.

It said that 70% of users in Northern Ireland had fallen victim to a computer virus over the past year.

Only 46% were aware that computers get viruses by opening attachments, while only 17% knew that you can get a virus by downloading a file.

The research was commissioned as part of Yahoo's Global Anti Spam Day initiative.

'Spam'

It also indicated that more than three quarters of people in Northern Ireland (79%) deleted any spam they received.

More than half (53%) have asked their ISP or e-mail provider to do something about it and some 16% of users in Northern Ireland still reply to spammers.

The stress of spam has resulted in many becoming "e-mad," or having e-mail affliction distress.

It said some 42% considered the daily chore of dealing with junk e-mails more stressful than the daily traffic jam, while 30% would be willing to exercise five times a week to get rid of spam for good.

According to the centre for stress management, symptoms of e-mad syndrome include twitching in front of the PC, irritability and sleeplessness.

The research also suggested that if Spam takes over a person's e-mails, his or her social lives would suffer.