There I was, in the shower, minding my shower-related business, when the lightbulb that I’ve always tried to be nice to suddenly decides that its best career choice at that point in life is to go out, leaving me in the dark. After contemplating my options I resolve to simply finish the shower, light or no light, and then regroup and come up with a new plan.
Determined as I am to at all times uphold the spirit of Cecil, I perform a scientific experiment designed to ascertain how much we use the sense of vision when we shower. The answer is “almost not at all”. I had to move my hand slower than normal in order to avoid the risk of bumping the shampoo bottle over instead of grabbing it, but apart from that you’d barely notice the light was out.
Those two paragraphs were the buildup, now on to the question. When I decided to continue showering in the dark, I instinctively closed my eyes, as if to avoid being confused by the meager visual cues that remained. When I tried to keep them open, they kept wanting to close, as if I could better focus with not even a shred of vision. Does anyone recognise this?
Not me. In fact, even if I am in a completely dark room, I still feel the need to put my glasses on. If I’m going to be in pitch dark, it still needs to be in focus pitch dark.
I don’t. When I’m putting film on their spool things in the darkroom (which requires absolute and total darkness, or the film will fog) I still feel the need to keep my eyes open. I know it’s exactly the same as shutting them but it still makes me uncomfortable. I feel like I have to be veeery careful or I’m going to walk into something if I close my eyes, which is stupid because I have to be just as careful not to walk into things with them open. But there you go.
No, I keep my eyes open. It’s fascinating in a strange way, being in a truly dark room with no light at all, how it doesn’t matter whether your eyes are open or closed. I wouldn’t want to miss that keeping my eyes closed the whole time.
Well, maybe it’s only interesting to me.
Stay in there for a few hours and you’ll realize it probably isn’t dark at all, and you’ll be able to see everything in the room by whatever dim light creeping from around corners that was originally invisible exists. That’s even more fascinating. The most fascinating of all, though, is that everything’s in black and white, the light-level being too low for your eyes to interpret color.
You’re wanted in the “ask the guy in Baghdad thread”.
I close my eyes in the dark because I’m afraid of getting poked in the eye with some imaginary sharp device that someone may have left floating in the air.
Or I’ll walk with my hands extended like Frankenstein and wave them back and forth to knock down any floating imaginary sharp things.
Energy efficient, lasts 6 to 7 years, with heavy use (longer, obviously, with your bathroom), & you can gauge the wattage against the socket capacity, to increase the amount of light you get.
Those people must have a different definition of “6 or 7 years” than I do, because every one of them that we’ve bought (and I’m talking a couple dozen at least, because we have 12 light cannisters in the computer room alone (track lighting)), has burned out in the normal amount of time, give or take. Sometimes they don’t even last that long.
No, I don’t like to close my eyes. I’m afraid something will jump out and get me and I won’t see it; sort of the reverse fear of Uncommon Sense’s floating objects.
This is my reasoning on closing my eyes too. When you’re wandering around in total darkness, you never know when some sharp object will come flying down from the ceiling and <i>stab you in the eye</i> and you won’t see it coming in time to blink or move out of the way. Better to protect your eyes by keeping them shut. It’s not like you need them for seeing in the dark anyway.
I know where my fear comes from, at least.
When I turn the corner of the living room to reach for the wall switch I sometimes have to deflect the arial TV antenna with my eyelid :smack: . Depending on who used the TV last and who had to adjust the arial,- sometimes it ends up pointing right at the area of the wall switch.
So, whenever I’m in the basement and I have to navigate a particular area without any lights (like when a breaker trips or the power goes out), I figure that I’d better close my eyes in case someone planted an arial antenna at eye height in the walk way between the basement steps and the breaker panel. :dubious:
I’m in the eyes closed batch. When I did darkroom work in high school, I closed my eyes while winding film onto the reels.
I often close my eyes when working on something out of sight (back of computer/cabinet/electronics). Somehow it helps me concentrate on the “mental image” of what my hands are doing.
See, when I’m doing something I can’t see with my hands (like loading film in a dark bag), I can’t keep my eyes shut–I have to stare into space while doing it.
Ive always closed my eyes whenever its too dark to see my hands. I started while in my photo journalism class in high school. The darkroom had a darkroom safe light, but it was so meager that it was easier to just keep my eyes closed and do everything by feel. Whenever I can’t see what I am doing, its easier to close my eyes rather than try and see through plastic/around corners/ exc.
At the same time, I have to keep my glasses on. Partially because once they are off then I can’t find them, but also because of the safety aspect.
I’m all for efficiency, but the quality of light you get from those is for shit. It’s this cold, dim, institutional fluorescence that sucks at the soul. No thanks.
I keep them open. I’ve tried walking around with my eyes closed, but it throws me off. I get a better sense of where things are with my eyes open, even if I can’t see them.
I’m the same way, although I have noticed that I have a habit of turning my head upward, even though I can’t see anything in that direction either. Oddly, when I’m going in and out of the darkroom through the revolving “magic door” I till turn my head upward, even though it’s only for a moment.
If it’s an almost completely dark situation (like looking for something in a closet at night), I’ll close my eyes so I’m not tempted to rely on visuals (memory and sense of touch are more reliable). If it’s 100% dark, I leave 'em open because it’s a cool sensation.
As an aside, I love taking showers in the dark (particularly the total dark) – it’s very relaxing. Back in the college dorms we had a perfect setup for this. The bathroom in the suite had a toilet/sink area, within which was a separate shower room with its own door. I could close both doors and turn off both lights, and the main bathroom area acted like an airlock for light.
The only drawback was that my suite-mates thought it was intensely wierd. They never came right out and said so, but I could hear it in their voices, especially when they’d come in to use the can while I was in the shower.
“So, uh, you . . . want me turn the light back off?”
“Um, yeah. Thanks.”