Eye, Spy, damage!

HYDERABAD: Joydev Majumdar Gone are the days when we used to hold a book or newspaper and thrust into it for hours or the official works which were carried out by pen and paper. Technology has overtaken or rather dominated our day to day life. Right from opening our eyes in the morning to going back to bed at night, technology, more specifically screened technology happens to be our closest companion.

Our eyes happens to be the most working and active organ of our body than our other limbs. What results to it that one ends up stressing his eyes associated with neck and back pain. This syndrome is known as Digital Eye Strain or Computer Vision Syndrome in medical terminologies.

Digital eye strain is the temporary discomfort that follows two or more hours of digital device use. Imagine the time spent by us using various screened devices like desktops and laptop computers, smartphones, e-readers, tablets, televisions and gaming systems.

In the words of Dr LVK Raju, senior consultant, Opthalmic Surgeon at Maxvision Super Speciality Eye Hospital, “When we use computers or phones near to our eyes for longer time, it results in eye strain or eye fatigue. It can be due to dryness because when we constantly look into a screen, we tend to decrease our blink rate which results in transient type dry eye which causes irritation and sometimes blurred vision.” Other risk associated with it is back, neck and shoulder pain caused due to bad posture of sitting while using computers and laptops for longer time.

Another interesting fact disclosed by Dr Raju is that using laptops are comparatively safer than cell phones as laptops do not tend to emit electromagnetic radiation as cell phones do while receiving a call or talking over it. Receiving a call during poor network connections or in rural areas multiplies the effect of such radiation.

“Though the content, size or photo may not directly affect the eye, the blue light which is high energy visible light with shorter wavelength can cause harm to the eyes,” says Dr Raju. Small pixilated texts and images, holding the device at wrong angle, too far or too close from the eyes can be other causes of eye strain. A survey carried out by The Vision Council m e n t i o n e d that people under the age of 40 are the most affected ones ie average of 87.7%. Next comes the category of age group 40-59 summing up 82.6% and the least affected are 60+ age group people with 76.3% on an average. “Prevention is better than cure,” says Dr Raju.

Tips

Reduce the use of cell phones as far as possible or substitute it with laptops for eg watching videos in YouTube or browsing internet.

Follow the 20-20- 20 rule ie after every 20 minutes of staring at a screen continuously, take a 20 seconds  break to look any object 20 feet away from you.

Post yourself at arm’s distance away from the screen.

Increase text size or fonts in the screen.

Blink more number of times voluntarily.

Use phones with blue filter mode.

Use anti reflective glasses for eyes.

Encourage children to play outdoor rather than playing with gadgets.

Visit eye specialists regularly.

“Use phone only when it is required, don’t use it for time pass”.