DO you suffer from“Cybersickness”？ 你得了“暈屏癥”嗎？

Alex

Believe it or not， your smart phone may be making you physically sick.

Scientists have found a condition called“cybersickness”， which they say is the digital（數字的）version of motion sickness（暈動病）.

Cybersickness， which affects up t0 80 per cent of the population who have smart phones or computers， leads to feelings of sickness. It is caused by seeing fast motion on a screen or on your phone.

Motion sickness leaves sufferers feeling ill because they feel movement but do not see it while digital sickness is the opposite-you see movement on the screen but do not feel it. But the effect is the same and the symptoms（疰狀） include a headache， wanting to throw up and the need to sit down.

Often cybersickness goes unnoticed and sufferers put it down to stress or eyes tiredness.

Steven Rauch， a professor of otolaryngology（耳鼻喉科學 ） at Harvard Medical School，said， “Your sense of balance is di仟erent than other senses in that it has lots of inputs（輸入）.When those inputs don't agree， that's when you feel sickness.”

Some studies found that women are easier to get cybersickness than men.

Those who have“Type A”personalities- meaning they have over-confidence-are more likely to suffer from cybersickness as well.

Those who have reported experiencing the condition have been video gamers who spend hours playing fast paced games.

Cinema-goers have struggled with some scenes in action movies which have quick cuts and fast editing-and virtual reality has made the problem even worse.

Jonathan Weinstein， a professor at the Kanbar Institute for Film and Television at New York Universibts Tisch School of the Arts， said， “The idea is to get audiences（觀眾）to feel like joining in the action rather than outside observers of the action.”

Thomas Stoffregen， professor of kinesiology at the University of Minnesota， said， “The more real something is， the more likely you are going to get sick.”