Cyber Sickness
October 28, 2022
Any time a kid complains about anything to their parents, the parents always respond with something along the lines of, “it’s that phone”. Well, what if sometimes, they were right. If you ever felt nauseous, dizzy, or fatigued after looking at your screen for a while, you might’ve experienced cyber sickness. Cyber sickness happens when the nerves in the eyes are being strained and there is no physical movement being done.
Cyber sickness can cause vertigo, blurred vision, and even problems sleeping. Lucy Beckham’s own Sutton Chastain has felt these symptoms but claims her biggest problem is the feeling of motion sickness. This is common among people who go through cyber sickness. Apple didn’t make this feeling any better when they added the parallax effect which made the home and lock screens able to move or shift. Scrolling on websites can also cause this effect if the background images stay stagnant.
Those who use virtual reality and augmented reality have also felt cyber sickness. People can feel nauseous after having the VR headset on for long periods of time. AR is something like Pokemon Go where you have to go places in real life to play it. These types of apps can strain the eyes and cause migraines and headaches. Research and Markets estimate that many places, such as work and school, will gain a 60% increase in the use of these products by 2027.
If you want to reduce the symptoms of cyber sickness, blue light glasses work to reduce eye strain and help sleep irregularities. Zooming in or making the font size on your phone bigger to also help with eye strain. Getting up from your phone, computer, or other electronic device to go use the bathroom, get water, or get a snack will help you with nausea and dizziness. So, maybe listen once in a while when your mom or dad tells you to get off that phone.