Commonalities Between Screen Sensitive Users I've Observed

cooldudz

These are the commonalities I've observed from people like us or on subreddits and what set off their sensitivity to screens. Note that this isn't some definitive list, just my own observations. So if you disagree or observed otherwise, please chime in. This is ordered from most seen to less:

New Device - pretty much it. They got a new device, usually a phone or a macbook, and they started immediately noticing symptoms of eye strain/fatigue, full body fatigue, dizziness, migraines, etc. Device more often than not (80%+) uses an OLED screen, but not always. Sometimes it's an LCD. What I see more often than not are that these are NEW devices, think 2020+ models. There are some rare cases where you see a user here posting pre-2018 that they started getting symptoms even back in the early 2010's, and a few even in the mid 2000's!
Software/OS Update - They had a device that worked fine for years, never changed devices, but updated their device and now they can no longer handle the device. I've seen it so much that it really put in my head how much OS truly matters. It's not just the screen, the hardware, but the software side of things truly does matter.
Covid Infection/Long Covid - Seen this very often. Some were completely fine "until I got covid and then couldn't handle any screens". Some got Covid and were still fine until long covid hit them and then everything fell apart.
Neck Issues - Nothing much to expand here. They just have a bad neck and cite it as a source of why they are sensitive to screens.
High Stress Event - Some people were completely good until a high stress event happened or even something not as acute, but rather a high-stress time in their life and then after that they couldn't handle screens.
Bad/Inadequate Sleep - The amount of people here or on subreddits related to this who admit they sleep poorly is astonishing. I guess one could make the case that one of their symptoms from the screens IS poor sleep, but I think the reverse is true. Bad sleep causes worse symptoms and many are self-aware of this.
Higher Screen Usage Relative to the Average Person - Many people here have careers in IT, are self-proclaimed gadget geeks, and love their devices. Their screen time is often more than the average person.
Seb Derm/Inflammed Scalp - This one I would have to ask people directly but again I was astonished at people who admitted they too had seborrheic dermatitis or scalp psoriasis or some other inflammation of the scalp/head area. This makes sense to me as these are inflammatory conditions that are situated literally right next to the eye area, so the inflammation is just irritating nerves which then get further irritated from screen usage. I know for myself that curing my seb derm allowed me to drastically tolerate screens much more.
Change in Medication - Witnessed people who were taking things like anti-depressants and they either changed drugs or drastically lowered their dosage and I think this was too much of a shock to their system which caused them to be unable to handle screens after this happened.
Poor Diet - I actually think this could be more prevalent than what I witnessed but it takes both a very self-aware person as well as a disciplined person to recognize their diet is inflaming them and that it has an impact on all of this. Also nutrition is so nuanced that someone may think they are eating well when really they are inflaming themselves. Again it really takes a lot of self awareness.

Those are the 10 commonalities I've observed. I know 10 is a nice round number but I didn't plan to reach some top ten list or anything. It just worked out to 10 when I started really thinking it out. There are two other commonalities I speculate about but require more research:

Little time spent outdoors. I just made a thread on this, so would love your help if you can click on my profile, go under 'posts', and give your input on the thread "How much time do you spend outdoors?".
Inadequate recovery. This kind of goes hand in hand with poor sleep, as well as poor diet if you think about it, but I think users here have poor recovery times. I think most people in the world as affected by PWM and bad screens, but they are able to just sleep it off or take a nap if they really feel something is off and they just bounce back quickly. Us here, the symptoms just keep building. We are unable to reset fully like they are able to.

Note that none of these exist in a vacuum. I think all of this is connected to each other and is a variable in why we are unable to process screens. For instance for me, I changed my device (to a Dell 2208 WFPt monitor), changed my OS to Windows 10 1809 (from windows 11), cured my seb derm, and improved my diet and I've made MAJOR improvements in my ability to tolerate screens yet I'm not fully there yet. I still get symptoms. Why? Because my neck is still bad.

Having said that, there are some users where they change one variable, likely the thing that affected them the most, and they say it fixed their issues and it all revolves around that. This is why you see some people fixate so much on PWM, on OLED, etc. Because they fixed that variable and their issues went away. This is just as valid but I think we need to start seeing things from a multi-faceted point of view because again for many of us, none of this exists in a vacuum.

What I extrapolated from all these observations is that this fundamentally, in my opinion, is an issue of nervous system dysfunction and inflammation. Screens, with their flicker/PWM/dithering/pattern glare, are bombarding a nervous system that may already be compromised (again due to poor sleep, poor diet, high stress, withdrawal from medication, covid/long covid) and this compounds with low-grade inflammation (that everything I listed before also cause) which causes the cascade of symptoms that everyone seems to fall under the same umbrella of.

K-Moss

cooldudz "Seb Derm/Inflammed Scalp - This one I would have to ask people directly but again I was astonished at people who admitted they too had seborrheic dermatitis or scalp psoriasis or some other inflammation of the scalp/head area. This makes sense to me as these are inflammatory conditions that are situated literally right next to the eye area, so the inflammation is just irritating nerves which then get further irritated from screen usage. I know for myself that curing my seb derm allowed me to drastically tolerate screens much more."

FYI, I got scalp irritation after having my hair cut from long to short. It is getting better now. Also had accelerated hair loss. Shampoos and hot water on the scalp can cause irritation and hair loss. Less hair = less insulation for the delicate scalp from the outside environment.

I wash with warm water and finish off with cool water. When I had long hair I mostly left alone the hair. It seemed to balance itself.

You can think about it: pouring hot water on the scalp and using an aggressive shampoo is bound to irritate the cells in that area.

Now that I am using shampoo rather more often, given my short hair, the body is producing more sebum / oil to try to compensate.

Reminds me of anecdotes of people's eyes watering from OLED screens. The body apparently is trying to protect itself with more lubrication.

In general, most people's problems are caused by unnatural living and unnatural lifestyle factors. Lions in the wild are not worrying about scalp issues and hair washing, and that's not because they are in a constant state of survival. It's because nature takes care of itself. It has been designed to be self-sufficient.

Joise

cooldudz Great insights and observations into contributing factors! I like that you see the problem as multi-faceted, as many problems are, and not overly simplistic.

cooldudz

K-Moss "In general, most people's problems are caused by unnatural living and unnatural lifestyle factors. Lions in the wild are not worrying about scalp issues and hair washing, and that's not because they are in a constant state of survival. It's because nature takes care of itself. It has been designed to be self-sufficient."

I agree with this, and on some level, I wonder if we will ever truly make it out of this. I mean seriously, when in human history have we ever had screens in front of our faces for 8+ hours a day? This is very new to our lives. I think even somehow finding the "perfect" screen that many here chase after, it might be futile. Maybe this is all starting to catch up with us. I grew with a Gameboy Color in front of my face when I was 4 years old addicted to playing Pokemon Blue. Yea the screen was M U C H better than the iPads they shove in front of kids' faces these days, but it's still such an unnatural way to live if you compare 99.99% of human history to this little blip in time of the past 30 years where screens entered our lives on a real fundamental level.

And even then, I would say the obsessive screen time for most normies didn't really start till smartphone era which is early 2010's. Before then, most people lived analog lives and would occasionally check the internet to check their myspace, news on their favorite band, maybe shop very minimally (off eBay or buying concert tickets), etc. Screens use was predominately TV's which were mostly CRT's since even plasma's were quite expensive still. And screen time was WAY down. Yea you had days where you vegge'd out and watched TV "all day" or played Gameboy for hours on end, but the stimulation from these devices was WAY less than what we have today. Someone could interrupt your session and you would be able to disconnect from your immersion immediately without frustration. These days, people are glued to the screen, almost stun locked by what they are engaging with on the screen, and if you interrupt their gaming session/internet surfing/netflix watching, they get visibly irritated at you having done so. I bring this all up because the effects on the nervous system it has these days is tenfold what it was 20 years ago. And again screen time is way up. I remember hearing stories as a kid in the mid 2000's of things like, "18 year old teen is hospitalized due to playing computer game for 13 hours a day". My brothers and I would game a lot but be like, "Damn! At least I'm not that guy. He legit has no life!" and now (well rather, before I had screen issues pre-2022) I could spend 14 hours a day on the computer and think nothing of it.

I want to be able to go back to using screens comfortably, without worry of symptoms, but I also want it to enrich my life and not be my life how it was before I could stop tolerating them.

AshX

One of the most interesting posts I’ve read on here. I tick a ton of those boxes: long COVID, neck issues, seb derm. I’d also like to add that screen issues is a very common complaint among autoimmune communities, but most never make the connection to flicker and assume it’s just blue light or refresh rate. There are also some recent studies from the past 2 years arguing seb derm has an autoimmune component - some doctors are flat out calling it an autoimmune condition. The POTS and dysautonomia community is ripe with complaints as well.

Some may want to shy away from bringing up health conditions, if for no other reason than some Apple support forums basically abdicate responsibility saying “fix your health condition, not our problem.” The thing is, Apple and other companies have made an effort to add accessibility settings on their devices - I mean Macs now have a setting that dims the screen for those with epilepsy when videos or graphics with flashing imagery appears (kind of ironic since their PWM and dithering techniques on their phones and computers can cause seizures). So it’s a compelling question to ask and see what commonalities exist.

I was talking about this with another screen sensitive individual: did screens get worse starting in 2019/2020 or did COVID cause people to become more sensitive to flicker? Google search trends see a massive uptick in Eyestrain searches starting at that time. Apple silicon was also launched then. One could chalk it up to work from home and increased screen time…but I’d wager it’s a combination of all of the above.

cooldudz

AshX Thank you for the nice compliment. I actually love reading your thoughts on comments/posts in this forum so that means a lot to me you said that.

Yes! I too have noticed a lot of people with autoimmune conditions unable to tolerate screens. For me, I think it links back to the inflammation that is common amongst screen-sensitive users. Because truly what is someone's body like when they have an auto-immune condition? Seb derm, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, these are all inflammatory conditions. And then going to POTS and dysautonomia, what are these fundamentally? Nervous system dysfunction.

In regards to your last paragraph, I agree it's a combination of all the above. It's a 1-2-3 punch of devices and software got worse for us + screen usage shot up + covid infections (as well as the stress of covid and everything surrounding it like people dying, changes in our lifestyles, all the fear that circulated around) just ended up wrecking our tolerance to screens.