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

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

#51

Post by kingbirdy »

patrickcteng wrote: post #45

So, as a child my mom always insisted on me reading with lots of lights turned on. She claimed that reading the dark causes short sightedness and etc. Now, as an adult, I find that I have my screen's brightness turned up way more than my peers. For example, although it's currently very sunny right now in LA, I have my brightness turned up 100% on my 16" MBP. Though, in the evenings, it's more comfortable at 3 or 4 st…

Why wouldn't you have your brightness at 100% if it was sunny? You need the backlight to be bright to avoid it being washed out by sunlight. It would be weird if you said you used 100% brightness in the dark, but that's perfectly reasonable when it's sunny.

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

#52

Post by outworlder »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #10
Andhurati wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do books do the same damage to your eyes as screens?

Probably? It's not like screens shoot death rays. It seems very likely that looking closely at patterns within a rectangle has the same effects whether it's made of paper or electronics.

They are backlit though, that's a big difference. Not sure if any issues would be caused by this.

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

#53

Post by TremendousJudge »

groby_b wrote: post #38
olodus wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that really supported by empirical trials? A short search online seems to point to that being somewhat disputed. I'm all for contradictory evidence though if you have some I missed. Yeah sure a screen is emitting light which maybe makes it worse for the eyes to look at in some ways and situations than a paper page, but "looking at light" is almost an oxymoron - isn't that what eyes do?

Eyes usually look at diffusely reflected light, which has a different impact than direct light. A white reflective surface (whiteboard) in direct sunlight is 1.6cd/cm^2. Consumer monitors are ~300cd/cm^2 (I'm not sure how much bearing this actually has on eye health, this is just to illustrate how looking at a monitor and at a piece of paper is significantly different)

>A white reflective surface (whiteboard) in direct sunlight is 1.6cd/cm^2. Consumer monitors are ~300cd/cm^2

Why does it hurt my eyes to look outside after a while looking at a screen in a well lit room? (the sun is not directly visible, just buildings, trees and sky)

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

#54

Post by vzidex »

snazz wrote: post #30
givehimagun wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide evidence of where screens cause damage to eyes? My ophthalmologist shared with me that there is general irritation but we haven't been able to prove that screen times degrade eye sight over time.

Staring at anything too close to your eyes for a long period of time isn't good for them. If you are taking appropriate breaks, my understanding is that screen time is harmless.

I've got the same understanding - I asked my ophthalmologist about it as well because my vision is already quite bad and I'm a computer engineer.

For breaks, she recommended the "20/20/20 rule" - focus your eyes on something at least 20 feet away, for 20 seconds, every 20 minutes of screen usage.

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

#55

Post by yoz-y »

groby_b wrote: post #38
olodus wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that really supported by empirical trials? A short search online seems to point to that being somewhat disputed. I'm all for contradictory evidence though if you have some I missed. Yeah sure a screen is emitting light which maybe makes it worse for the eyes to look at in some ways and situations than a paper page, but "looking at light" is almost an oxymoron - isn't that what eyes do?

Eyes usually look at diffusely reflected light, which has a different impact than direct light. A white reflective surface (whiteboard) in direct sunlight is 1.6cd/cm^2. Consumer monitors are ~300cd/cm^2 (I'm not sure how much bearing this actually has on eye health, this is just to illustrate how looking at a monitor and at a piece of paper is significantly different)

Hm, to be honest I find reading a book is direct sunlight quite more challenging than staring at a screen, because the reflected light is quite unbearable.

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

#56

Post by lukevp »

groby_b wrote: post #38
olodus wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that really supported by empirical trials? A short search online seems to point to that being somewhat disputed. I'm all for contradictory evidence though if you have some I missed. Yeah sure a screen is emitting light which maybe makes it worse for the eyes to look at in some ways and situations than a paper page, but "looking at light" is almost an oxymoron - isn't that what eyes do?

Eyes usually look at diffusely reflected light, which has a different impact than direct light. A white reflective surface (whiteboard) in direct sunlight is 1.6cd/cm^2. Consumer monitors are ~300cd/cm^2 (I'm not sure how much bearing this actually has on eye health, this is just to illustrate how looking at a monitor and at a piece of paper is significantly different)

Your units are wrong. Monitor brightness is measured in square meters not square centimeters. A square centimeter is 10,000 times smaller than a square meter.

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

#57

Post by Cerium »

groby_b wrote: post #38
olodus wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that really supported by empirical trials? A short search online seems to point to that being somewhat disputed. I'm all for contradictory evidence though if you have some I missed. Yeah sure a screen is emitting light which maybe makes it worse for the eyes to look at in some ways and situations than a paper page, but "looking at light" is almost an oxymoron - isn't that what eyes do?

Eyes usually look at diffusely reflected light, which has a different impact than direct light. A white reflective surface (whiteboard) in direct sunlight is 1.6cd/cm^2. Consumer monitors are ~300cd/cm^2 (I'm not sure how much bearing this actually has on eye health, this is just to illustrate how looking at a monitor and at a piece of paper is significantly different)

I think there is a unit error here. I believe that sunlight on white paper is about 1.6cd/cm^2, while consumer monitors are about 300cd/m^2 (meter not cm). Essentially, you want the brightness to match the environment.

http://www.infocomm.org/filestore/display_specs_and_human_vi...

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

#58

Post by beervirus »

groby_b wrote: post #38
olodus wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that really supported by empirical trials? A short search online seems to point to that being somewhat disputed. I'm all for contradictory evidence though if you have some I missed. Yeah sure a screen is emitting light which maybe makes it worse for the eyes to look at in some ways and situations than a paper page, but "looking at light" is almost an oxymoron - isn't that what eyes do?

Eyes usually look at diffusely reflected light, which has a different impact than direct light. A white reflective surface (whiteboard) in direct sunlight is 1.6cd/cm^2. Consumer monitors are ~300cd/cm^2 (I'm not sure how much bearing this actually has on eye health, this is just to illustrate how looking at a monitor and at a piece of paper is significantly different)

As noted, your units are wrong. A white reflective surface in sunlight is FAR brighter than a computer monitor.

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

#59

Post by karatestomp »

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…

Meanwhile we put 5-6 year olds in kindergarten classrooms with UV-blocking windows all day, for about 9 months during the part of the year with the least sunlight available, and we've cut recess time down to almost nothing, and schools increasingly don't send kids outside if the weather's anything other than perfect. At my kids' school they don't even have indoor recess if they keep them in! They just watch a damn movie. WTF. Of course there was some stupid educational fad that led them to remove all the toys from lower-grade classrooms to make room for "learning centers" (I gather this has happened more or less state-wide), so I guess if the gym's not available they can't really do indoor recess anyway, not that it helps their eyesight either way. And this is a very highly-ranked school for our state.

1.5 hours of recess daily minimum or bust for 3rd grade and under, I say, and I think that's not quite enough, really. Screw this 30 minutes crap. Know how I can guarantee my kids have behavior problems at home? Coop them up inside all day. Know how I make a day run smoothly? Make sure they're outside running around at least a couple hours while the sun's up. Then consider that they're giving a bunch of them nearsightedness on top of definitely creating behavioral and learning problems. It's crazy.

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

#60

Post by cableshaft »

Apocryphon wrote: post #35
pintxo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Netflix ever adds Spin City to their catalogue I will be in trouble.

Newsradio for this guy

I have a folder of the entire series of Newsradio that's been played in the background (while I do other things, I don't even watch it, just listen)... sooo many times. Corner Gas is the only other show I've played as often.
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