15-year-old Ayush Bharadwaj is a victim of blue light syndrome. Vijay S Kumar reports
Reports of 15-year-old Ayush Bharadwaj developing sleep disorders because of constantly playing Pokemon Go created quite a buzz recently. Turns out this addiction is now compromising the vision of a generation. “It has become a serious problem,” says Dr Sanjay Verma, head of the department of ophthalmology, at Paras hospital in Gurugram.
“It has been observed that constant exposure to blue light, which has a short wavelength and high energy level, leads to multiple eye problems and even sleep disorders. When you play games on a small screen, your concentration level is at its peak because you have to focus on multiple things together. The human eye is not meant to be focussing on anything beyond a certain time frame, so when that happens, the blink rate goes down significantly resulting in dryness and irritability.” This may or may not have a lasting effect on sleep patterns, but when it does, it can have some serious repercussions.
Mike Schultz, a 21-year-old communications graduate on long Island, New York, took a spill on his skateboard while he was playing the game, he cut his hand on the sidewalk after hitting a big crack. He said, “I wanted to be able to stop quickly to see if there were any Pokemons nearby to catch, I don’t think the company is at fault.”
The American Association of Orthopaedic surgeons has said in an official guidance that looking at your phone or any electronic devices while walking can result in sprains, broken bones and other serious and even fatal injuries. Experts around the world believe that this can have adverse effects on one’s mental health as this is a very addictive game. They advise people to regularly monitor the number of hours that they are spending on the game each day and if playing the game is affecting their social life or not, because if it is, then they have to be classified as addicts and treated accordingly. Some experts and psychologists recommend setting an alarm to limit your time on the game and organising trips and sessions with people that don’t involve your phone. Some even go to the extent of asking people to leave their chargers at home if they see signs of addiction.
The famous television cartoon show that exploded in popularity in the 90s has made a comeback and looks stronger than ever. This time it has entered the space of your mobile screen and is so addictive that people don’t even have the time watch the road while they are walking the streets. Pokemon Go is a game that uses your phone’s GPS and clock to detect where and when you are in the game and make a Pokemon appear on your phone screen so that you can go and catch it. The game is an attempt at realising what the fans always wanted. It is a world full of exotic and powerful monsters in the form of rats, snakes, dinosaurs, eggs and trees. You try and catch, tame and train these Pokemons and make them fight your opponents. You become a trainer in the process and can eventually flaunt your success. Doesn’t it sound interestingIJ Well, it did, at least for those millions who remained glued to their television screens at sharp 5 in the evening to see the central character Ash winning those highly acclaimed tournaments.
As they say, excess of everything is bad; there is no light, constant exposure of which does not cause harm. Alternatively you can try and reduce the brightness and increase the contrast, if you can’t live without it! It is rightly said that man does not recognise the devil of his own creation, we have progressed and come a long way in terms of communications technology but are we really communicatingIJ
The whole idea of being able to game on and doing multiple things on our phones and Ipads has handicapped us so bad that we now try and “kill time” than utilise it. How many times have you noticed a family sitting in a restaurant and talking to each otherIJ It is a rare sight these days because mothers are usually busy chatting on their whatsapp groups, fathers are busy with their work and children with their games. Why blame technology or in this case a game, when the root cause is you, yourselfIJ We think the best thing to do in this case would be to either grab a Pokemon that induces sleep or learn the divine art of self control.