Yesterday, an eclipse was visible across the United States. This led to many people being very normal, with reactions ranging from witches casting spells to people thinking that a portal to Hell was being opened. Good to see we’ve regressed to medieval peasantry!
Fortunately, most people responded the way we would all expect: by looking at the eclipse. Unfortunately, they didn’t wear the requisite eyewear while doing it, and now, everyone is complaining that their eyes hurt for some reason.
People's eyes are hurting, and they're seeking answers pic.twitter.com/RZEPGKdvgk
— Shalom Goodman (@ShalomGood) April 8, 2024
Looking at Google Trends, searches for “eye pain,” “eyes hurt” and “stared at eclipse” are going up. Additionally, casually browsing through X/Twitter, one can easily find many different people questioning why their eyes hurt, or admitting to staring directly into the sun — and wondering why their pupils are stinging afterwards.
update ;
— -`lilith´- (@starrybuni) April 9, 2024
im not blind !! eyes hurt for like all of last night but not too bad ,
all in all , wasnt not worth it but wouldnt of been worth it if I went blind , it was just the sun but really bright https://t.co/yJw8eGOz4i
I stared at the eclipse too long and gave myself nausea eye pain and a headache yall im so dumb
— varsha (@lighterflickk_) April 9, 2024
Eyes hurt pic.twitter.com/hF2fcUuVwn https://t.co/bptQ2E9BHX
— xander (@myspacesasuke) April 9, 2024
ya girl looked at the eclipse and had mild eye pain for 16 hours
— Kate (@kouqyoku) April 9, 2024
i think i did the exact same thing during the last eclipse bc i had some major deja vu, surely next time I'll have learned my lesson
In fairness, some claim that their eyes hurt after staring at the eclipse while wearing the required glasses — which could mean that they were either wearing them wrong or inadvertently bought one of the pairs of fake eclipse glasses that were flooding Amazon and other markets around the time of the event.
ok but my eyes hurt even thought i wore the glasses https://t.co/gdxKrYkYCs
— kat (@kitcolonthree) April 9, 2024
Some on X/Twitter have claimed that this trend of looking directly into the sun was the result of a MAGA conspiracy against science. In short, this is bullshit — going by Google search trends, this trend in idiocy appears to be pretty evenly spread across locations and political ideologies. That’s right: Everyone from your Fox News uncle to your MSNBC aunt was having their corneas burned out yesterday. Finally, something to unite us in this divided time!
If you were one of the fools who stared directly into the sun — first, ha ha ha ha ha. Second, you’re probably fine, at least according to USA Today. While you may experience some temporary discomfort, and you probably did some damage to your eyeballs, it likely wasn’t enough to cause any permanent issues.
In fact, across both the U.S. and Canada, only “about 100 documented cases of eye damage were reported after the 2017 total solar eclipse,” writes the paper you used to get outside of your hotel room, and “most people who visited emergency rooms with concerns of watery eyes or blurred vision were mainly fine.”
Let’s just hope you remember to buy glasses by the time the next eclipse rolls around in 2044.
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