The hatred of printers has reached such an extreme that there are those who pay to go to a place to destroy them with hammers.

Printers are the kind of products that we tend to avoid having at home – and a necessary evil of many offices. Unless we need to have these devices for labor issues or academic, the best option is usually to resort to a copy shop for sporadic printing.

This is because they have earned a reputation for being a pain in the ass for users. And the particularities of this industry attest to this: choosing the “perfect printer” is a daunting challenge and, once we have made the purchase, we usually have to prepare our wallets for cheap ink.

There are already people paying to break printers

Even after overcoming the aforementioned steps, our new printer stops working due to planned obsolescence or that we cannot use compatible cartridges. While some people decide to take this type of situation in stride, others take a different path.

The aversion that can be felt towards printers is driving a peculiar business in the United States: that of allowing customers to break printers with hammers, sticks and other objects. Paying for this activity, of course. Or at least that’s what notes The Washington Post this week.

In the country the “smash room” or “rooms of anger” have begun to multiply. Although the proposals usually vary according to each place, the proposal is the same: people pay for sessions of a certain number of minutes to destroy elements with hammers or bats. And not only printers, but also other elements such as screens and keyboards.

Smash Room Iowa, for example, charges $80 for two people to break objects in a 20-minute session. The price increases to $160 for four people for 30 minutes. There’s even the ability to purchase extras like colored sand and Silly String (spray foam) for parties.

For his part, The Rage Cage offers 20-minute sessions for up to two people for $70. The proposal includes “premium electronics,” such as printers and monitors, and small devices such as office phones, keyboards, and speakers. There are also other higher price proposals for more time and more people.

In both cases, those who provide these services assure that they offer the elements so that clients do not get hurt, such as gloves, helmets, and safety glasses. It is even possible to buy an additional package that consists of recording a video to immortalize the moment.

While this type of activity is often promoted as a way to channel anger and stress, clinical psychologist Scott Bea points out in an article from the Cleveland Clinic that breaking things can provide a short term reliefbut it will not help much to solve the problems in the long term, that is, it has a short-lived effect.

Images: Smash Room Iowa | steve buissinne

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