Does staring at the screen hurt your eyes

Marioro

Marioro

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Curiosity has led me to ask this question. Does looking at the computer or tv even moderately eventually damage my eyes in the long run? Even if it takes 50-60 years or whatever for it to do so.
 
I think it varies from person to person, but I do believe staring at a screen for too long can cause some amount of damage. At least for me, staring at one for too long can cause some strain and tiredness... and I stare at one all day due to my projects and job.
 
I don't really get headaches from staring at it a trillion hours either. I'm just wondering what happens after a long time or something.
 
personally i think it can be a bit hurting to do it for ages with no break but overall i'm fairly tolerant
 
I've definitely strained my eyes from looking at screens. Sometimes headaches as well. I wear glasses and turn on eye-care / blue light filters to help with it.
 
With breaks I find it less straining, but from time to time I just need to stop and rest.
 
I should've said I meant permanent damage in some way after multiple days of looking at it even moderately. Not just momentary eyestrain.
 
I read some articles before that said you should look away from a screen for 20 minutes for every hour of consumption. But looking at some articles now, the information seems to vary, though taking a 20 minute break every hour sounds like a decent piece of advice.
 
It depends a lot, I particularly, when I spend a lot of time in front of the TV or the computer, it is normal for me to get a lot of headache.
 
i don't think there's any universal rule for how many breaks everyone should take but i asked the twins about it and they just said take a break whenever you feel you should - physical discomfort, need to do some school or house work, or it's time for bed, or you need to get up and walk for a bit
 
Pretty much what MiracleDinner said. I don't think there's any long-term medical conditions from staring at a screen, but it does cause eyestrain and excessive exposure to blue light can interfere with your ability to sleep, as well as secondary effects from being stuck in a computer for too long such as a strained wrist from using the mouse too much. You should take breaks if you feel like you're staring too much, get up and walk around for a bit.

Think about it this way: a huge amount of people work in a screen as part of their jobs, such as game developers. If there were documented cases of long-term health consequences (mind you, purely from staring at a screen, ignoring other confounding variables such as long hours and crunch periods), the game development jobs would have one of the most extensively documented cases of it, don't you think?