Tag: #screentime

Staring at a screen too long

With meetings, #bellringing, family gatherings, talks, plus the usual social media, emails, work etc, I find that I’m currently spending roughly 12 hours a day staring at a screen.  Small wonder my eyes are dried out at the end of the evening.

I work a 9.5hr day Monday to Friday and most evenings am either on a Zoom meeting, or a virtual #bellringing session.  On my non-working day I have, one, sometimes two virtual #bellringing sessions and more often than not a meeting in the afternoon on Zoom as well.  Then every other Sunday there’s the family Skype gathering.

Apparently, there’s a name for it now ‘digital eye strain’ or ‘computer vision syndrome’.  However, help it at hand with some top tips on how to reduce eye strain from All About Vision:

  1. Get an eye test and tell the optician how much time you spend on the computer or devices.
  2. Reduce excessive bright light.  Close blinds or curtains, use lower intensity light bulbs, and position the computer so that windows are at the side, not in front or behind.
  3. Consider an anti-glare screen for your monitor and have a more muted coloured wall to reduce glare from reflective surfaces.
  4. Upgrade your monitor with a flat-panel LED screen in anti-reflective surface.
  5. Adjust the brightness, text size and contrast, colour temperature or your screen.
  6. Blink.  When staring at a screen, people blink less frequently — only about one-third as often as they normally do. Blinking moistens your eyes to prevent dryness and irritation.
  7. Exercise your eyes by frequently looking away from the screen at a distant object and focus on it for at least 20 seconds.
  8. Take frequent breaks to help reduce neck, shoulder and back pain.  Get up and move around for 10 minutes every hour.
  9. Modify your workstation.  Check your posture and ensure that your chair is the right height with your feet comfortably on the floor.  Make sure that your screen is 20-24 inches away from your eyes with the centre of the screen 10-15 degrees below your eye level.
  10. Consider computer glasses.  Customised glasses which photochromic lenses.

I am conscious that my eyes are tired at the end of the day, and that I do probably need to get up and move about a bit more.

Maybe I will also try a digital detox day as well.  A day without any screen time at all.  Hmmmm!

Historical inaccuracies

Being a bit of a history buff, particularly the Tudor period, I was interested to see Netflix advise me of a series available that is supposedly based on the life of Mary, Queen of Scots entitle Reign.  I thought, great, I’ll have a watch of that.  OMG, it drove me insane to the point of nearly switching off.  There were so many inaccuracies throughout it from the costume, to the set designs to the story lines.  For goodness sake, if you are going to base something on actual historical people, at least have some accuracy in what life was actually like at the time.

I’m ok with period dramas that are not based on actual historical characters, for example Bridgeton is not based on any person in history, it’s just set in a particular period of time, and at least the costume, sets and even the language was (mostly) of the right era. 

Reign seems to have so much wrong with it it’s laughable.  I say I nearly switched off because it was one of those things that it was so bad, that I wanted to watch just how bad it would get.  I’ve watched two episodes so far and just about stuck it out.

I remember when the Other Boleyn Girl film came out at the cinema.  I went to see it with my friend and before we got settled she said to me “I’m not sure I want to do this.  You’re going to go off on one when they get it wrong aren’t you”?  I’m sorry, I can’t help it.

I understand a bit of artistic licence with the storyline, but at least get the fundamental basics right.  They did not have carpets in the 1500s.  Nor did the women go around with out hoods, or wearing sleeveless, short dresses. I also get that they won’t necessarily have accents etc correct.  Mary, Queen of Scots, by all accounts had a strong French accent, hardly surprising since she was brought up there from a very young age.

It seems that this American “highly fictionalised” (no kidding) series was cancelled after four seasons as the ratings dropped.  As far as I can tell the end of series four leaves Mary married to Darnley, so it doesn’t quite complete the story of a queen who was brought up abroad, married three times, estranged from her children and forced to flee, hoping for mercy from her English queen cousin, only to be beheaded for plotting to take the English throne.

However sad Mary’s story was, it doesn’t really deserve being hashed in this attempt of storytelling.  I’ll probably stick it out watching the rest of the series, but I won’t be sorry that it didn’t conclude.

Late to the party

We don’t watch a lot of tv as we’re usually quite busy with virtual #bellringing, meetings or other stuff. We also only have terrestrial tv channels and Netflix. Our knowledge of what’s worth watching is therefore limited and we end up watching repeats of repeats of NCIS or Law and Order.

Despite the fact that we’ve watched most episodes multiple times and its our “go to” viewing, I am now starting to get a bit bored with the same old, same old. I was flicking through channels the other day and came across Travel Man presented by Richard Ayoade. He takes a celebrity on a mini break somewhere and crams in as many touristy things as they can in 48 hours. Richard’s style is quite sardonic but its that that makes the show more entertaining. I think the series was originally aired in 2016.

Our daughter is usually good for a recommendation on Netflix but she has Amazon Prime as well and sometimes forgets that we don’t. She recommended something the other day saying that I would enjoy it because it was based in Henry VIII time. She screenshot a photo and sent it to me. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that actually that style of wig was from 1700s not 1500s. At least she recognised it was historic!

I’d like to watch something different, but just don’t know what’s worth my while on terrestrial TV or Netflix.

Happy to receive recommendations.

Izzy, whizzy, let’s get dizzy

Every now and then I have an episode of Meniere’s or vertigo, where everything goes a bit swimmy, my eyes find it hard to focus and I get a bit unbalanced. Its most disconcerting.

The worst cases I’ve had have kept me bed ridden when even moving my eyes was enough to make me physically sick. Any attempt to move my head or get out of bed was just not going to happen.

I’m never quite sure what triggers it. According to the NHS website Meniere’s is a condition affecting the inner ear that can cause vertigo, tinnitus and hearing loss. I don’t tend to get tinnitus or hearing loss with mild cases but with the most severe episodes I have.

I started to feel the onset of symptoms on Friday. As you will recall this was the end of a particularly difficult week with me needing to go into work on my day off. During the weekend the dizziness came and went depending on what I was doing. On Monday morning I headed into work feeling slightly unbalanced but not particularly feeling nauseated. I managed to get through the day without too much trouble but I had to be careful around over use of PC screens. I found that scrolling around documents and emails did then tend to make me feel a bit sick.

I have therefore taken the evening off looking at screens, social media, games and outside work work in the hope that it will give my eyes and brain a rest.

P.S. feeling much better today.