The eyes are the jewels of the body

It is said that the eyes are the jewels of the body and rightfully so. Of late, I have been thinking about my own eyes a lot. Yes, I know you must be raising your eyebrows thinking – now what’s with the eye thing?! Well, there is nothing wrong really.

Recently I bought an iPad, 64 GB with 3G. Yes, feels great and I am hopelessly falling in love with it. However, this has made me think about the increase in the usage of the eyes for electronics and things/gadgets with a screen.

When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me that if I watch too much of television, my eyes will go bad. When I was in standard 8, I was prescribed spectacles for myopia. I still wear glasses and thankfully the power has not increased over the years. Television, according to my mother, is in a way, a source of light and the way our eyes hurt when we keep staring at a light bulb, our eyes actually get hurt when we stare at a screen for long hours too. I don’t know if she is right or wrong. But I agree to the logic here. While using the iPad I realised how much I stare on an electronic gadget’s screen and how much it must be hurting my eyes.

I work for a travel magazine now. Apart from editing articles and making the magazine using the computer, I also keep in touch with my friends through a computer. A screen again! During the day, I spend eight full hours staring at the screen with very few small breaks in between. When I come home, I either watch TV or I am with my iPad. If I am not doing these, I am either using my mobile phone to text/call friends or using an iPod, music player to listen to music and all these come with a display screen. Coming to think of it, I stare at a screen most of the waking hours of my day!

Now, the question is, how much can our eyes take? Today, I realised that eyes are the greatest gifts of God and if we are running out of reason, as respect for Him, we must take care of our eyes. Like I mentioned before, the eyes are the jewels of the body and we must take special care of our eyes as we do to the precious jewels we possess.