According to the Vision Council, about 70% of adults in America have eye strain problems due to excessive use of electronic devices. The average American spends about an average of 6 to 9 hours in front of some sort of digital screen each day. This type of eye strain can cause irritation, dry eyes, and blurred vision. An individual can feel the eye strain simply after two hours of using an electronic device. Blue Light, also known as HEV, is the light that causes the most eye strain from the color schemes on a digital service. “Studies suggest that overexposure to heV light can damage the retina, the part of the eye that brings objects into focus. this occurs when blue light penetrates the macular pigment of the eye and causes a breakdown of that protective shield. This leaves the eye more susceptible to blue light exposure and cell degeneration,” (Digiteyezed, 9).
A group of college students conducted an experiment where they observed several students in the computer lab at their school. They recorded interviews with the students asking how long they’ve been using the computer, if they felt pain in their eyes, and how often a week they use the computers. They observed students constantly rubbing their eyes and massaging their heads, hinting the strain taking place after using the digital screen for so long. Head, neck, and back aches can also come along with digital eye strain.
Digital eye strain is becoming one of the most prominent pains in workers and students neighboring arthritis. In order to prevent digital eye strain you should turn down the brightness on your device, adjust the device to below eye level, keep it far away from your face, increase size of text to avoid strain when reading, take 20 minute breaks in between digital use, and limit your computer or digital device use time per day.
Sources
1.) http://www.thevisioncouncil.org/sites/default/files/TVCDigitEYEzedReport2013.pdf
I find it funny that just before I read the sentence stating “turn down the brightness on your screen”, I had done just so. This blog makes me think of those people who are literally hooked on video games and computer programming and such and makes me wonder if their eyes learn to adjust after all those hours. Just as our eyes adapt if we are constantly in the dark, do our eyes adapt after extensive hours in front of a screen? According to all the articles and studies I’ve come across, our eyes simply do not adjust. Instead they grow tired, irritated, dry, and strained just as your blog suggested.
Here is a link discussing what they call “Computer Vision Syndrome” or CVS:
http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/computer-vision-syndrome
I too experience this problem all too often. I wear contacts and find that they get especially irritable if i spend too much time in front of a screen. It turns out that when we stare at a screen for a prolonged amount of time, we blink less frequently, actually five times less than we normally do. This is especially bad for contact wearers. Acuvue, the leader in contact lens production, suggests turning down the glare of your screen, adjust your seat so that you are just above the monitor, take breaks every so often, and stay hydrated.
Works Cited:
https://www.en.acuvuearabia.com/lens-care-wear/life-with-contact-lenses/computers
I personally have suffered from this because all of our work is online. CNN wrote an article on ways we can help control this eye strain. Doctor Edward Kondrot suggests that we take frequent breaks and stare at an non electronic item, blink frequently, or wear computer glasses. The easiest way to fix this is to simply print out things when we can.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/03/health/digital-eyestrain/
I’ve been staring at this computer screen for the past 7 hours. Everything I just read was so accurate to what happens. It would almost be laughable if I wasn’t actually messing up my eyes. I’m wondering what the long term effects of looking at bright screens everyday is. I wouldn’t mind glasses when I’m older.
I always have to squint when looking at some screens. My eyes are not that strong so on my computer I always have the brightness turned down really low. I definitely agree that computer screens and cell phone screens negatively impact our eyes. Something like this makes me wonder how many people with jobs that are at a desk in front a computer screen for their whole work day go blind or have a vision impairment.
I like this post, the fact is that in school most people switch from notebooks to laptops to take notes, so those are additional hours that students spend in front of a digital device. In my case, most of my classes (including this one) requires to spend a least 2 hours infront of my computer because of the homework that instead of hand in it in class, we just have to upload it thru angel. I think I great question is what would be the long-term effects of spending too much time in front of a digital device?, I think we will discover it soon.
Today, everyone looks at computer/television/tv screens for prolonged periods of time. It makes you question how safe it really is? I would have never thought how looking at my laptop could affect my eyes. I did some additional research and found that computers can also cause tension headaches, dry eye, and eye strain! I think that there should be study done on how technology can affect your eyes in the long term. You can read more about the previous article mentioned here