Screen Time is Bad for Your Health
In a new large-scale study examining the relationship between screen time and heart problems, scientists found something dramatic. Just sitting in front of a screen for four or more hours a day correlates with a doubling of heart disease risk compared to less than two hours. And it was associated with a 50% higher death rate, as well.
The study, led by Emmanuel Stamatakis at the University College of London and published in the January 18th issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, looked at “leisure” screen time, what the scientists called “recreational sitting,” and followed study participants for four years. Whether the same correlation would be found regarding work-related screen time wasn’t studied, but it doesn’t take much imagination to assume that there would be a link there, as well. We editors spend way more than four hours a day sitting in front of a screen. And we do it for a lot longer than four years. What is it doing to us?
Here’s a more complete look at the research. And here’s the abstract of the original article.
Explore posts in the same categories: Avid, Media and Society, Quality of Life
Splice Now 
January 13, 2011 at 11:57 am
This is probably why Walter Murch edits standing up!
Me, I’m developing a treadmill NLE.
– lsm
January 13, 2011 at 5:24 pm
maybe i should stop my occassional 10am-130am double shifts :( heh
January 17, 2011 at 9:21 am
I think an easy rule of thumb should be, if you can take care of an interoffice/studio task by getting up and walking to someone else instead of using the phone or sending an email, do it. It’s not always practical if you have a client or a tight deadline, but if you have the chance to get up and move, do it!
February 10, 2011 at 7:20 pm
Is it possible that excessive exposure to computer screens can trigger seizures?
February 11, 2011 at 8:33 am
Pulsing images can:
Japanese cartoon triggers seizures in hundreds of children.
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9712/17/video.seizures.update/
Photosensitive Epilepsy (wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosensitive_epilepsy
January 5, 2016 at 11:25 am
[…] All these screens we’re staring at, if they’re not bad for us in and of themselves, they are certainly symptoms of an ill. Whenever I see people in a darkened room and their face is lit up by the pale blue light of a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop, a TV or a theater screen, I feel a tinge of sadness. […]