Computer rage

In April 2015, a Colorado man was cited for firing a gun within a residential area when he took his computer into a back alley and shot it eight times with a 9mm pistol.

"[3] In 2007, a German man threw his computer out the window in the middle of the night, startling his neighbors.

"[4] In 2006, the staged surveillance video "Bad Day", showing a man assaulting his computer at work, became a viral hit on the Internet, reaching over two million views.

[6] The Angry German Kid is a popular Internet meme that stems from a viral video from the mid-2000s where the protagonist screams at his computer for loading too slowly, and repeatedly hits the table with the keyboard, causing keys to fall off.

[13] In 1999, Professor Robert J. Edelmann, a chartered clinical, forensic and health psychologist and a fellow of the British Psychological Society, was offering a special helpline in the UK for those with technology-related anger.

[17] Research on emotion has shown that anger is often caused by interruptions of plans and expectations, especially through the violation of social norms.

[18] This sense of anger can be magnified when the individual does not understand why they are unable to meet their goal or task at hand or why there was a violation of social norms.

Specifically, when users fail to understand why their computer will not work properly, often in the times they need it to the most, it can invoke a sense of hostility as it is interpreted as a breach of social norms or a personal attack.

[12] Alternatively, releasing anger on a computer has been viewed as advantageous as it directs this rage at an object as opposed to another person, and can make individuals feel better afterwards.