Do you use your laptop on your lap?

I sometimes spend hours lying in bed, propped up by a pillow with my laptop on my chest typing away. It’s pretty tricky and it takes some practice, for sure. I’ve been doing it for years and I’m pretty good at it. I don’t know what it might be doing to my lungs. I sometimes think about the possible side effects. I really don’t want to know, I guess, because I’ve never researched the subject. I’ve been doing this for at least twenty years. LOL. The damage is done. If I come down with lung cancer, I’ll let you know.

My old laptop, before it crapped out, had cooling vents on the bottom. Sometimes if I was working for a long time, my thighs would feel like they were being burnt from the hot air.

rarely

On rare occasion but usually I am either sitting at my breakfast bar, lying in my bed on my side propped up on pillows with my laptop next to me or cozied up on the couch with it sitting on the arm of the sofa. It hurts my neck to have it on my lap looking down, I prefer the lounging position. haha
I wouldn’t worry about getting cancer from your laptop, besides, ya gotta die of SOMETHING. LOL

I work with my laptop on my knee all the time, but I have a wooden board my husband made for me. I sit my laptop on that. Laptops can get pretty hot and it’s less stable to have one on my knee. I can pack my board when I go away and it works perfectly!

It is far more probable that it will result in an overheated battery rather than prostate cancer.
Most lap taps have air inteks or exhaust on the bottom. If yo sit the plaptop on your lap you can cover the vents. It is better to have the laptop sitting on a hard smooth surface. I used a stiff, stamped metal plate that was for an electrical distribution box. It has holes in it for breakers so it allows air transfer and keeps the laptop cool. You can find something else around your place. Even a stiff book would work well.

I always use a platform. In this heat, my laptop wouldn’t last two minutes without one. Mine has fans in it that push air up into the vents, like a supercharger.

I use my laptop on my lap with a USB powered fan cooler pad.

I used a stiff, stamped metal plate that was for an electrical distribution box

I use a cookie sheet for a laptop platform (bought specifically for this, so it’s bare, clean metal). It works great, leaving the vents clear and it’s big enough to act as a heat sink, spreading the heat.

I sit upright in bed, with the cookie sheet on my lap.

At other people’s houses, I look for a coffee table book. Anything bigger than the laptop footprint works.

@Call_Me_Jay We think alike. I like the idea of the cookie sheet – or a pizza pan! Except I had the sheet metal in stock. I didn’t have to buy anything.

I do the same when I crash at my sisters. She has a big laptop absorbing duvet I call “the laptop killer”. However, I generally use the cutting board to keep the air flowing when I stay there.

And yeah. Sitting on your ass using the laptop all day is more likely to kill you than the actual laptop itself.

Boys, thank you! I am going to the thrift store tomorrow to get a cookie sheet to put on top of the pillow I usually use when I’m sitting up in bed using my laptop. It always gets super hot. Thank you, thank you, thank you : )

In order. Yes, yes, no. The second yes is I knew a guy who had a second degree burn because he fell asleep with his laptop on his lap and got burned by the battery.

No, it’s too heavy. I have a very nice lap desk with foam backing, and a standing laptop desk for my recliner. I also have a fan laptop desk for bed use.

I do, but I have a cooling pad that I put between my lap and the computer.

I do, but it is always propped at an angle for maximum airflow [I am a geek]. I never get burned by my laptop, like many fools. My laptop has lived for ten+ years and I only recently purchased a new one. And I will purchase another in another decade or so. Heh.

@squirbel Me too, always have my laptop propped at an angle as well and same thing, my last one lasted over 8 years and this new one is only 8 months old now. The only reason my old one died was because I screwed up and used the wrong port on a new cord and it got fried. haha

Rarely.
On a regular basis I use it on a TV tray/table in the living room during the day and on my bed in front of me as I sit cross-legged at night.

The once in a blue moon I have used it on my lap, it got uncomfortable quickly from the weight and from what I’ve gathered, it’s inadvisable in spite of the name ‘laptop’.

It obstructs the air ducts if they are located at the bottom (as can using it on most any surface apart from a table) which will cause overheating and although I am a woman and I’m not sure of the possible effects it has on a woman’s body, I recall coming across something once that said it can lower a man’s sperm count.

@Coloma mine died because our chihuahua puppy urinated on my open laptop [my fault] while we were sleeping. When we woke, I was too late to save it.

One more thought re. using a laptop on your lap:
Unless you have a solid state drive.(few do) your hard drive is spinning like a gyroscope. Tilting it puts a lot of stress on the bearings and risks damage. If you must move your laptop while on try to carry it parallel to the ground and avoid tilting!

Yes .. I use my laptop on my lap. As the name suggests laptop, it means it is made to use on your lap.
But it radiates heats which is so harmful for the body. It can even burn that part of body and can cause cancer also.
In one survey, it showed that it can decrease the sperm count.
Its better not to use it on your lap directly, put some pillow over the lap and use it.

Don’t use a pillow or towel for you lap, get a laptop cooling pad (with a fan) or at least a kitchen cutting board. The pillow or fabric holds the heat in and can damage, in the long run, your laptop.

Not normally.