The Scary Effects of Technology on our Eyes

Technology is everything these days. It helps us connect to each other and makes our lives significally more convenient. However, are we using too much technology? According to an article, “More than a third of American adults spend more than half of their day with some type of technology and 14% report using technology 10-2 hours daily” (GoodEyes).

This overuse of technology causes great strain to the user’s eyes. One main affect technology has is causing eyestrain, headaches, focusing difficulty, double vision, etc. Without looking at technology, a user’s eye blinkes 12-15 times a minute. However, when a user is focusing on a digital screen, they forget to blink. This can lead to a user blinking only 7 times a minute. The decrease in blinking can lead to less lubrication which results in dry and extremely sore eyes.

Almost 60% of adult Americans have adopted the habit of carrying their phone or laptop with them when they go to bed (GoodEyes). Leaving your phone next to a user’s head while sleeping can cause severe damage to the eyes. This is because the direct exposure to blue light damages the retina, which gets worse and worse as you age.

This is an important issue due to the fact that technology is becoming more and more popular as the years go on, and no one pauses and thinks about the severe impact it can have on your eyes. As I walk down a street, almost every person I walk by is glued to their phone. People should be aware of the health risks.

https://www.goodeyes.com/blog/scary-effects-technology-on-our-eyes/

 

10 thoughts on “The Scary Effects of Technology on our Eyes

  1. Peoples vision in relation to technology is definitely becoming worse and worse. Staring at a bright screen for hours on end causes us to strain out eyes as well as forget to blink. Above where you mentioned double vision, my mother is a teacher a spends hours every night staring at her laptop writing lesson plans, by about 10pm from staring at screens all day she gets intense double vision and has to put a post it over one eye in able to continue her work. I don’t think people realize the damage they are doing to their body every day. And as you mentioned above people are always bringing their devices to bed with them. Staring at a screen in the dark is even worse for your eyes so recently Apple introduced the night mode which allows softer light for the eyes.

  2. This is a super on point post. I am straining my eyes as I type this. I would say that my vision has been decreasing since I was in 8th grade, with screen usage being the culprit. I think that, in particular, playing hours and hours of video games as a child has much to do with my bad vision and reliance on contacts/glasses to see. I think that this is an issue that cannot be resolved, only one that can be lessened. Kindle and the Nook have both utilized lower light screens which don’t hurt your eyes as much. I think that the innovation showcased by those devices needs to be implemented immediately in order to help save our eyes.

  3. I think it is a good point to bring up that technology has negative affects on our health. I can definitely relate to my eyes hurting after hours of using technology. More health issues caused by technology, on top of vision problems, are hearing loss, from listening to music too loud with headphones and neck and back strain, from sitting at a desk, hunched over, looking at a device for hours. Technology increases to cause health issues and make people lazier, because phones can do so much now and you can get more things accomplished while remaining seated. On the other hand, technology also leads to many health benefits like research for diseases and sicknesses. I believe that in the future with all of the advancements of technology to come, there will be more advances in ways for technology to improve your health as well.

  4. I think everyone is aware of the dangers smartphones have to your eyes, but nobody pays attention to them because they haven’t heard of real-life situations where someone’s eyes were actually damaged. This article is about two women that experienced temporary blindness for months due to looking at their smartphones while laying in bed at night. They were both only looking at their smartphones with one eye and the other eye was covered by the pillow. This caused one eye to adjust to darkness but the other eye couldn’t adjust, which resulted in temporary blindness. I think this demonstrates the severity of smartphone usage, especially considering how often people in our generation are on their smartphones. It’s definitely a serious issue and shouldn’t be taken as lightly as it is, but it is difficult to stop looking at our phones at night because it has become routine. Hopefully Apple/Samsung can develop a phone in the future that takes into account the damage the brightness causes, beyond the level of “night mode”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/23/smartphone-users-temporarily-blinded-looking-screen-in-bed

  5. I agree with everything that is being said. I know for me personally I always watch Netflix or other videos on my phone in bed.. This is very damaging to my eyes. This site recommends a screen being 20 – 26 inches away from your eyes. I know I never usually abide by this rule, but after reading the effects the screen does to my eyes I think I will start following the 20- 26 inch rule. Digital devices give off blue light and it is starting to effect our generation and also younger generations. The sites says, “children’s eyes absorb more blue light than adults from digital device screens.” This is a very alarming trend that we must start trying to fix. Looking at these bright screens for a long tome also causes eye strains. Some solutions are too lower screen brightness’s like activating night mode or just going into your digital device’s settings and manually turn down the brightness. Another solution is to watch more things on TVs. This is a good course of action because normally when we watch TV the screen is very far back compared to where we are sitting. You can also use things like a chromecast or a HDMI cord to put things from your laptop and phone onto the TV. While screens are ruining our eyes currently, but there are some quick and easy solutions that we can partake in to solve this problem.

  6. I find this article very interesting because I use my phone and watch something on the TV most nights before I go to bed, so this article relates directly to me. I wanted to learn more about the other negative effects of using technology right before you go to bed so I googled what how reading on a screen before bed can hurt your body. What I found was that people that use an electronic device right before bed get less REM sleep, secreted less melatonin (Melatonin helps regulate our sleep), and were more tired the next morning (even if they got the same amount of sleep) as someone who read from a printed book before they went to bed instead.

    URL: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/23/reading-before-bed_n_6372828.html

  7. Very enlightening and interesting article, I think many of us know about the negative side effects of digital screen on our eyes, but most care to ignore and not recognize the severity of it. The generation that will be effected by this the most begins with those who are 5-10 years younger than us. They have been exposed to digital devices such as phones and tablets ever since they were born. We did have tv and computers that were frequently used, but we had nothing close to as popular and widely used as smart devices as today. These devices are now becoming just as common in the classroom as much as it is at home. With kids now being exposed for digital screens up to 10-12 continuous hours in the day, it is bound to cause eye problems for them in the future and may even have worse impacts than we initially have now about digital screens and their effect on our eyes.

    https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/features/vision-classroom-technology#1

  8. This article forced to me think about my daily use with technology and how many times I’m on my phone or computer. I use my phone every night before I go to bed on night mode which is the reddish screen, but I now realize it still has some negative effects. In the article I posted below it describes some ways in which we can take some precautions to avoid further damage. One simple trick is to just look away from your screen if you have been on it a long time and let your eyes rest. The muscles in your eyes strain every time you look at your screen, so looking away helps every so often. Maybe in the future, companies will design technology that somehow doesn’t do any harm to our eyes. It’s a hopeful dream, but technology is always ever changing and improving.

    https://www.livescience.com/35579-3-ways-technology-affects-eyes.html

  9. Thank you for posting about this. The damaging effects of screens and monitors on our eyes is something I think most people are aware, of but often forget. Or don’t care. Mainly because we aren’t going to stop using technology less or even stop taking it to bed with us. However after doing some research the people that are most affected are children due to them being more naive. In the article I link down below it states that dry eyes is a huge issue with children. This is because of the blink rate going down. As you state without looking at a screen, we blink 12-15 times a a minute. But that is cut in half when we are looking.With children however this can increase their likelihood of getting pediatric dry eye disease or DED. Children who are actively on their phones for prolonged times are most at risk.

    I think this is something we should take into consideration. Although Apple and Samsung both have implemented features in their interface that allow for “Night Shift” or “Night Mode”, that warms the colors on the screen. We should still take precautions with usage and taking our phone to bed with us.

    Article: https://journal.thriveglobal.com/technology-and-our-childrens-eyesight-facts-myths-f8a275ce1b45

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