Beware bad blue light
More than ever, screen time has become an issue everywhere that people just can’t seem to avoid. Distance learning and nothing to do in the house has led so many more children, teens and adults to staring at something called blue light.
“If we are constantly looking at blue light, we’re decreasing that contrast that our eyes need and our brains need to navigate the world. We have more fatigue. We have dried eyes. We are going to have our eyes age faster,” said Sue Anderson, a health teacher at CVHS.
Blue light is one strong form of light that highly penetrates the human eye. The main sources of blue light include flat-screen TVs, computer screens and smartphones.
Everyone knows that looking at the screen for too long is harmful. However students can’t seem to escape the endless list of assignments on the computer.
“Every week I have about ten assignments or more. If I had to guess my overall screen time it would be around ten hours per each day. I usually end up going to sleep near midnight,” said junior Zachary Gilbert.
Anderson explained that there is a relationship between blue light and students’ messed up sleep schedules.“It will keep us up, because our brains are not processing in our circadian rhythms. Anytime we have electronics on, that changes our cortisol levels. We are ignoring our natural sleep schedules,” said Anderson.
Sophomore Alex Huang says he experiences the effects of blue light as well. “I stay up late almost every week. Either doing work or just looking at my phone. Time just goes by so fast without me even noticing,” said Huang.
Since the introduction of display devices, there has been a concern of what effect it would have on our health. However, especially now the problem is becoming worse.
Blue light is not leaving anytime soon and we need to save our eyes. It is recommended that if possible people get screen filters, blue light glasses or similar products. We should all still continue to stay active and get out of the house while staying six feet apart.
“Screen time is now the majority of my time and it probably is yours too so we should care about what the effects are,” said Huang.
I’ve know for a while that blue light is bad for you but since distance learning started it doesn’t feel like there’s much to do about it. My eyes get tired and dry faster lately because I’m on my laptop doing school work all the time. It’s hard to escape the harmful blue light these days and it’s a little scary.
I totally agree, blue light could be very harmful and have lots of negative effects on our health. Some studies have seen connections between nighttime light exposure and other diseases like cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, so it’s really important to make sure we’re all taking proper precautions to protect our eyes. Dim red lights and blue-light blocking glasses are some things people use as protection.
Ever since distance learning, I have spent way more time online. I have the blue light filter on on my phone and chromebook, but my eyes still get very tired.
Blue light is one of the unintended consequences of us all going online. Even without school I would be spending 6+ hours on my phone and basically these days on top of school I’m topping 12 hours. I think I should consider getting blue light glasses or something.
I also think blue light is quickly becoming a problem. It is becoming a bit unavoidable though, especially with our workload.
I agree, when i spend too much time on my phone or computer my eyes start to get super dry and tired.