Week 2

Media habit notes:

Every night I sit down on my computer and talk between 3-4 hours straight with my boyfriend. After this I brush my teeth and lay down in bed, where, like most of us, I grab my phone and either scroll through social media apps like Facebook and Instagram, watch Youtube videos or read a story written by an amateur writer. Usually I continue using my phone until I can't find anything new to look at or I am tired enough to stop on my own and go to sleep. First thing in the morning I hear my phone alarm waking me up and I start, once again, scrolling through social media and letting my brain and body wake up slowly.

Studies have for years shown that the blue light from our phones impacts our sleep. Blue light reduces melanin production in our brain, essentially making us less sleepy. It keeps our brains alert and having your phone next to you with vibration or sound on can wake you up during the night. Not only does blue light affect how sleepy you are, it also effects your quality of sleep.

Doctors  have know this for years. Everyone has, but is anyone doing anything about it, not really. Blue light is like a drug. It's great when you are participating in a Game Jam and you have 48 hours to finish all assets for your game, but it definitely does not help when you have an early school day tomorrow.

Personally, I do not know what I am going to do about this. The blue light is not the only drug. Social media is also one. I get so easily bored all the time and when I am supposed to work on something procrastination just hits me and I start to watch videos on "why you shouldn't procrastinate".  And social media is there to easily distract you from things you would rather not do. Endless source of entertainment at your fingertips! Addiction is hard to compact really, especially when it seems the whole world is addicted. I am not saying anything new or innovating but after this post I will try to stick to more traditional forms of social media. Newspapers, books and small amounts of television, maybe take out my morning social media routine. Of course there is no guarantee that it will stick to it, but it's something to think and write about.

Media for this week:

I've been reading a book called "Visual Design Concepts for Mobile Games" by Christopher Carman. I loaned this particular book from the school library quite a while ago and I can't remember when I am supposed to return it. So the unknown date when to return this particular book drove me into actually reading it. I haven't finished it yet, (Currently at chapter 5), but it is very interesting this far. It talks about game design process, pipelines, pitching your game, different visuals you can do for games etc. This blog post's artwork is one of the exercises in that book. I recommend it for anyone interested in art and games. 

Here is links to articles I read on blue light:

https://www.sleep.org/articles/ways-technology-affects-sleep/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/block-blue-light-to-sleep-better