Making an investment in me

When I was a kid growing up we used to go to game rooms and play video games all the time. I spent hours standing before those cathode ray screens staring at the pixels. In fact sometimes I would put my eyes right up to the screen just to experience the psychedelic effect of the pixels. It’s kind of like abstract art!

I don’t know if that was harmful or not to my eyes. Eyes do have issues as people age. I remember reading about how George Washington’s eyes started having issues after the Revolution – it was attributed to all the stress he went through and, hearing about the story, someone at the time was deeply moved by it.

One of my greatest gurus in life – Johann Sebastian Bach – also had very serious eye issues at the end of his life. Given the extensive blessings bestowed upon our world by this man who wrote so many works of profound music, I tell myself that I will never complain about my eyes ever. I’m thankful that I can see what I can see.

However it has become increasingly difficult over the past years for me to use my eyes to do certain things, including reading music, and notably to work on a computer. There have been days when I’ve been taking online courses when my eyes were exhausted and just not working well when I had to take a break from using them.

Several things have changed: I did get a prescription for reading glasses and they help immensely when reading music or printed material. They also help – are necessary – when using a computer screen up-close such as a laptop monitor.

But I also obtained a large, 32″ monitor over the past year and it has fundamentally changed how I use a computer screen. I no longer wear reading glasses to view a screen up-close. Instead I have the computer monitor about a meter away from me and, at this distance, I don’t need glasses! This has made an enormous difference.

However, over the recent couple months I’ve been now having issues with the fact that the monitor I’m using is too dim. Spec-wise it is rated at 250 cd. It finally got to the point – again – where I was finding it difficult to do work. My eyes simply do not always have the oomph to deal with the dim text and I find myself once again needing breaks from using the screen.

So I started looking at monitors available. I started to think that I need to make a more serious investment in a screen because I really use it a lot. The 32″ inch monitor I’ve been using I got used and it’s ok but nowhere near top-of-the-line.

After researching and debating this issue for the past couple weeks, I finally decided to invest in a 43″ UHD monitor that is rated at 400 cd brightness.

It hasn’t arrived yet, but hopefully it will make a difference and make it easier for me to see.

I wanted to write this because there may be a lot of people who are starting to have vision issues as they age. People work with computer screens as an essential part of their livelihood. If you are in this position, don’t give up. You may have to make an investment in a good monitor and try different things, but there can be hope!

When it came down to a large-display device I initially started looking at TVs. TVs tend to be less expensive and appear to offer all these different features. In fact I don’t think I’ve purchased a TV in literally decades. I think the last one I purchased was a small 13″ one that had a VCR built in to it. I vaguely remember having a small walkman-tv thing that never really got good reception but was kind of cool.

So I really was naive about the state of TVs and was shocked to find that now all TVs are “smart” TVs. The idea of a TV as I would have used a couple decades ago is gone. They don’t exist. No one makes them. They’re all smart TVs now and – from my point of view – they are all garbage. The “smart” part of TVs is not a feature but a bug. I don’t want any OS on my frikkin TV. I don’t want any company tracking my TV usage. WTF is up with that?

So I quickly realized that TVs are out. I don’t want to have such a device nor give money to any of these twisted companies that spy on us. That means getting a monitor. There are not many monitors in the very-large size range. I looked into 49″ ultra-wide monitors but ended up settling on a 43″ standard monitor. However, if I had unlimited funds and an office, I would seriously consider a 49″ ultra-wide.

Part of me is still hoping for Snowcrash-style goggles 🙂