Everybody these days has a smartphone that never leaves their side. We spend hours a day staring at the tiny screens looking at different social media, text messages, and games. Just walking around camps, you’ll see thousands of students walking with their head down staring at their phones. I know I am an offender of being on my phone too much. The fact that everyone spends that much time staring at a small screened made me ask the question: Is that stress on our eyes causing permanent eye damage?
I wanted to know the answer to this question for my own personal benefit. If it caused eye damage, I was going to try to change my habits and spend less time looking at my phone. The answer I found to this question was relieving for the most part. As of right now, we don’t know of any permanent damage to your eyes. Staring at your phone causes eye stress and possible short-term effects, but nothing permanent. The main symptoms caused by this action are headaches and blurriness. These symptoms are temporary, but there are some things you can do to avoid them. Experts recommend you take a break from your phone every 20 minutes. This lets your eyes get some rest and moisture back to them. I believe taking this recommended break could be extremely beneficial. It only takes about 30 seconds to look away and rest your eyes, so I don’t know why any rational person wouldn’t at least give it a try. For those interested in more information, this article talks about other symptoms and things you can do to avoid them. The answer to the question is very relieving to me, and probably to the millions of other people who spend too much time on their phone.
Source: http://yoursightmatters.com/tiny-screens-can-cause-big-vision-problems/
This blog was really interesting. The rumors about cell phones causing damage are rampant and many think they cause cancer as well. The World Health Organization just released some information regarding this: http://www.nta.ng/news/technology/20160916-new-study-mobile-phone-use-causes-cancer-who/. Nice job on this blog, it will be interesting to see what research brings up about cell phones over time.
Not only can phones potentially hurt your eyes, but they can also prevent you from falling asleep, due to the brightness. But, in IOS 9.3, there’s a new feature that helps your eyes before you go to sleep. Instead of the extreme blue-brightness, you can change the display so that the colors are “warmer.” You can read about it here in the link below:
http://www.newsweek.com/apples-new-ios-will-help-protect-your-eyes-night-414180
After reading this post I definitely believe my mom a little more now when she yells at me to get off my phone because “my eyes are going to get strained.” Every time my mom yells at me for this I know realistically she is probably right and that this could be a possibility from being on my phone so much, but who wants to ever let their mom be right?! This post is very relevant and useful for kids our age and our generation who literally lives on their phones- guilty myself. I thought it would be useful to look up other effects the constant use of being on our cell phones has on us and thought the article below was interesting if you want to check it out.
http://www.everydayhealth.com/arthritis/are-you-texting-your-way-to-arthritis.aspx
I think it’s interesting how your phone screen isn’t as damaging to our sight as I thought it was. However, did you know that looking downward to your phone can really affect your back? the last time I went to the doctor’s he told me to use my phone facing directly to my face so I could keep my head/back straight, rather than looking down to my lap. Here’s more on what this is doing to your spine http://lifehacker.com/this-is-what-looking-down-at-your-cell-phone-does-to-yo-1660637854
I too have the same question regarding specific screens. I agree with how much our generation looks at our cell phone screens… but what about a computer screen relevant to schoolwork. Each homework assignment or paper is at least a solid half hour and can extend to several hours on end. I want to know if this type of stress can actually cause damage to our eyes because that would affect almost the entire student body of all ages. This link is specific to computer screens but pretty much addresses the same results.
http://www.news-medical.net/health/Does-looking-at-a-computer-damage-your-eyes.aspx
I thought this topic was interesting because you only address phones and eye damage. Do you think staring at any screen, like a television or computer monitor, would have the same affect? Or is it simply the fact that the screens are small and we have to have them in such close proximity to our faces? It’s good to know that experts say we should take a rest every 20 minutes or so because I think it could certainly have an effect. There have been times when I played a video game for so long that head began to hurt and I felt nauseous. Really I just needed to lay down and give my eyes and head a rest. However this has never happened to me while looking at my phone; and there have been times when I stared at my phone for about 2 hours or so. Have you ever experienced anything like this while looking at your phone? Below is a link that talks about video games and how they can be a danger if played excessively. Let me know what you think.
http://www.livescience.com/22281-teens-video-games-health-risks.html
Thanks for writing this article, because I also wondered if screens damaged our eyes, especially because our generation uses technology so heavily. I always have heard to not go on my phone when the lights are turned off for the night, but I never exactly knew why. I am glad you mentioned the short term effects because I tend to get headaches often, so it is nice to have a potential reason or added variable that would cause a headache for me.
This was something that I too always wondered. I spend so much time on my phone, and do not want to make my eyes any worse. I looked it up for myself and they do not know for sure, but they do know it strains the eyes. Knowing this I would assume that after a while it would have negative affect. Check out this article
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/does-your-phone-damage-your-eyes-an-experts-advice/
I think this is a very relevant and helpful post for people of all ages. Although it probably applies more to people in our age group, many adults and younger children spend large quantities of time staring down at their phone. When you mentioned taking a break when from looking at your phone every 20 minutes I started to think about how much time people are wasting on their devise if they would really have to take a break between such long intervals of time. I found this article on the time people are spending on their phones.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/smartphone-usage-estimates_us_5637687de4b063179912dc96