AI Image Thumbnail Generated Using Grok AI
I am guilty of this, most of my work is done on my phone or laptop. And work hours could go for hours unending. I actually love working online but I usually get worried thinking about the long term implications of too much screen time for my eyeballs.
Of course, I use all the eye care features of the latest Android phone but I don't think that's enough to confidently say, there's no repercussions for too much screen time.
Screens have basically become an extension of my hands now. I wouldn't say, I'm addicted I'll just say if work and play is at the same spot, you tend to spend a lot of time there.
All the work time is on the phone and the time to entertain myself with some of my favorite shows after work is always on the same phone.
Not to talk of my casual text messaging with friends and family. Sum it all up and it's ridiculous screen time without even noticing.
One of the things you should always take good care of are the irreplaceable assets of your life. Family, friends and body parts, lol. Science and medicine has not gotten to the level where they can regenerate a whole eyeball for you so it's very irreplaceable.
How many people would accept an offer of a billion dollars in exchange for their sight? Yeah, not that many. And for those who would accept that offer, I'd like to say, stop bullshiting me, you won't when it's time to actually do it, haha.
The eyes of a person or let me say, vision or sight is priceless.
Too much screen time can lead to something I was quite familiar with a few years ago. You'll experience dryness, a weird burning sensation on the eyeballs and some occasional blurred vision (of course not too blurred but enough for you to notice).
If you don't listen to these signs, it progresses to the next level where you get headaches and general fatigue. When that was happening to me, I would close my eyes mid day just to reduce the effect.
I knew I had to do something about it and it had to be related to less screen time. You see, with the screentime issues, people blame it on the blue light coming from the screens. But that's kind of a lazy answer and science doesn't fully back that claim.
After asking a couple of old folks around, mostly in my family and doing a little research both on Google and YouTube with a little bit of AI assistant, I learned a lot about eye straining and screentime.
Apparently, the real reason behind screentime causing these problems is not just the screen, it's the user's bad habits, bad posture and funny enough, forgetting to blink when you're fully engaged on the screen.
When I stare at the screen, it locks my gaze and that cuts down my blink rate. My eyeballs paid the price for this. No breaks during my work time so that made it worse.
Then I learned about a very good strategy to use, very sad I forgot the link to the website I learned it from, I would have sourced it, it was years ago but it stuck with me.
It's called the 20-20-20 rule. This is not some cheap ass productivity hack people throw around, it actually works and it has helped me a great deal.
When using the screens, take a 20 seconds break off of it every 20 minutes. In that 20 seconds, there should be no screen you're looking at. I usually close my eyes with that time. This is similar to stretching after sitting in a particular position for a long time.
Also not just the screen, the lighting around you matters a lot. The Fluorescent office lights are a disaster. Go for warm lights.
I've actually adjusted the entire set up for my laptop. The screen will always be at arms length and the chair I used although not the expensive gamer chairs but at least it doesn't punish my spine.
Also the font size of both my laptop and phone is large enough to avoid squinting my eyes to read something. Oh and never forgetting to blink regularly, you could easily forget that.
The best strategy is this, don't push yourself through when you or your eyes feel tired, that's the fastest way to strain them.
Quote By Me, TheHiveTuber
If you won't take a billion dollars in exchange for your sight, why damage them for less.