A young lady in Taiwan has suffered severe eye trauma after using her smartphone on maximum brightness for two years.

Featured Image VIA

In fact the damage is so bad that doctors said there were over 500 ‘holes’ appearing on her cornea and her eyes looked like they’d been “baked in a microwave”. 

The 25-year-old woman, named Chen, had turned her phone up to maximum brightness two years ago and just left it there this whole time. It’s kinda like the visual equivalent of listening to your headphones on max all the time.

After two years of texting, browsing and watching videos with her phone at full brightness, Chen began experiencing pain in her eyes which then became bloodshot.

Doctors found her cornea was “ingested with blood” and her eyesight had been permanently damaged. Her right eye was even worse (the one with 500 ‘holes’ in it). Fortunately, some improvement was made to her eyes with the use of steroids.

One of the doctors treating Chen said her phone had been emitting light at 625 Lumens, over the double recommended 300 Lumens.

Indeed exposing your eyes to that sort of brightness is like baking them in the microwave, according to the docs.

Images VIA

Not sure what make of phone Chen was using, but whatever phone it was, I find this story absolutely baffling. How have there not been more cases of microwaved eye balls if it’s as simple as keeping your phone on max brightness for 2 years? How about those of us who spend pretty much all day with our eyes glued to our phones/laptops/TV screens? Lumens on lumens on lumens.

Regardless, it does seem like a bit of a lunatic move to keep your phone at full brightness 24/7. Didn’t she even turn it down in bed at night? That’s just asking for trouble really.