Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens • Hacker News Board

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#231

Post by rorykoehler » Wed, May 20, 2020, 8:36 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #181

rorykoehler wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't put a playlist into YouTube kids. I tried.

Here's a video on how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjKmQwhSk1s It's not exactly a playlist, but you can hand select content.

Thanks will check it out.

Edit: I watched the video. I’ll have another look on the app tomorrow but I’m pretty sure that video does what I’m complaining about. The catalogue is pitiful. I just want access to all of YouTube. It’s not a big ask but they won’t make $$ off of Showing adult videos to kids so they won’t offer that.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#232

Post by veddox » Wed, May 20, 2020, 8:54 PM UTC

stevebmark wrote: post #221

M5x7wI3CmbEem10 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

would it help to keep your phone or monitor further away?

Having less focus in your peripheral vision might help slow myopia progression, so possibly. However wearing glasses and contacts automatically add more focus to peripheral vision, signaling the eye to grow. So moving something further away from your face while wearing glasses or contacts may have less of an effect. Having periods of blurry vision, like looking at something far away for some time without glasses or c…

> Having periods of blurry vision, like looking at something far away for some time without glasses or contacts, may be beneficial in that it may signal the eye to become less football shaped to help correct for the blurriness it now is experiencing.

I literally just had that yesterday, and was wondering what it was. My eyes have always been very good, but I have been a bit worried of late after a few such blurry episodes...

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#233

Post by stevebmark » Wed, May 20, 2020, 9:01 PM UTC

veddox wrote: post #232

stevebmark wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having less focus in your peripheral vision might help slow myopia progression, so possibly. However wearing glasses and contacts automatically add more focus to peripheral vision, signaling the eye to grow. So moving something further away from your face while wearing glasses or contacts may have less of an effect. Having periods of blurry vision, like looking at something far away for some time without glasses or c…

> Having periods of blurry vision, like looking at something far away for some time without glasses or contacts, may be beneficial in that it may signal the eye to become less football shaped to help correct for the blurriness it now is experiencing. I literally just had that yesterday, and was wondering what it was. My eyes have always been very good, but I have been a bit worried of late after a few such blurry epi…

no, I mean intentionally unfocusing your eyes by looking at something far away without wearing correction. Involuntary blurriness or double vision is unrelated.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#234

Post by heavenlyblue » Wed, May 20, 2020, 9:03 PM UTC

bdamm wrote: post #210

mattkrause wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as your visual system is concerned, "real" violet (e.g., from a tunable laser) and the "fake" RGB violet are pretty much the same--it's coded as the relative amounts of red/green or blue/yellow almost immediately after the cones.

Not necessarily. There is a lot of analog in the eyes beyond the nerves, and we don't know all the effects of ambient light on the entire eye structure. Even if the neural impulses end up being similar (and I doubt that) the eye as a whole organ may not respond the same way. Maybe that heat energy triggers something in the cornea? We don't know.

We also can’t prove the absence the magical wardrobe with an entrance to Narnia from our universe, yet many people would say you are insane if you think it’s true.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#235

Post by kazen44 » Wed, May 20, 2020, 9:07 PM UTC

aupchurch wrote: post #119

These stats always freak me out when you extrapolate it over the long term. The average adult will also spend 2 years commuting or an entire year of their life sitting on the toilet. Lot's of wasted time here people. I think this also shows the power of what we can accomplish by spending 10 minutes a day doing something.

why would spending time on the toilet be wasted time?

actually, sometimes, doing practically nothing is very valuable for one's state of mind.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#236

Post by jeffreyrogers » Wed, May 20, 2020, 9:26 PM UTC

dannyw wrote: post #98

ipnon wrote: post #39

"If children get outside enough, it doesn't matter how much they study they do. They don't become myopic," said Ian Morgan, researcher at Australian National University.[0] "Researchers say kids and teens need to get sunlight during the critical years of their development while their eyeballs are still growing. "The mechanics of how sunlight protects their eyes are not clearly understood. One theory suggests that sun…

Does anyone know if this also applies for people in their early 20s? Of course more sunlight and exercise never hurts, but I’d be more compelled if there’s scientific evidence that it stops myopia progression.

Anecdotally I had great vision (20/15) before starting college. Before I went to college the eye doctor said not to bother coming back until I got married. After 3 years of looking at a screen in the dark I needed glasses.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#237

Post by M5x7wI3CmbEem10 » Wed, May 20, 2020, 9:46 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #206

M5x7wI3CmbEem10 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

any thoughts on blue light glasses? or setting your screens to grayscale?

> any thoughts on blue light glasses? I tried them. They worked well enough, but I don't like to wear glasses so I stopped. Also I didn't like how they cut all blue light, including the blue from the sunlight. It's important to get blue light during the day to help your body regulate it's sleep hormone production. > or setting your screens to grayscale? That's orthogonal. The white part of the grayscale still has blu…

why attention?

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#238

Post by yesenadam » Wed, May 20, 2020, 9:49 PM UTC

hackmiester wrote: post #164

osrec wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily enough, I remember talking to a historian who said centuries ago, reading a book was considered "mindless entertainment", much as we think about our smartphones now. Eventually, reading evolved into being considered something generally "smart" people did.

I'd also love to read more about this, similar to the sibling comment from carierx1, who appears to be hellbanned.

> carierx1, who appears to be hellbanned.

If you read their 1 page comment history, there's dang explaining "We've banned this account." and why.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#239

Post by kart23 » Wed, May 20, 2020, 10:17 PM UTC

ImprobableTruth wrote: post #202

gowld wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of that time was caring for your eye health so you don't go blind early?

Is there anything to indicate that excessive screen usage can cause blindness? Especially since LCD aren't that bad concerning eye strain.

I get pretty nasty headaches and my eyes start hurting after looking at monitors with PWM backlights. Some of my screens are fine, some begin to hurt my eyes after an hour or so.

Re: Average adult will spend 34 years of their life staring at screens

#240

Post by nerdponx » Wed, May 20, 2020, 10:22 PM UTC

ishjoh wrote: post #188

derekp7 wrote: post #18

This article is about the effects of eye strain, not the overall mental health of looking at content on a screen. With that in mind, what is it about a screen (emitted light) that is worse than outdoors reflect light? One item I can think of, is that looking at something with reflected natural light, the iris contracts based on the total amount of light hitting it. Whereas a screen may be brighter than the ambient li…

My optometrist mentioned that one big problem with being in front of a screen is that the focal depth is close and constant, and that can cause headaches and other issues. She recommended I stare out a window or make a conscious effort to look into the distance for 10 minutes every hour.

This is what I've always heard as well. Your eye muscles end up "fixed" in a small range of positions, whereas with looking at stuff off-screen (and especially outdoors) your eye muscles do a wider variety of movements.