Even With 20/20 Vision, I Wear These Glasses Every Day
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We live in the digital age. This isn’t news to anybody; the impending threat or glory of AI is right at our feet, while in our hands we have smartphones and iPads and computer screens with bluetooth capabilities to connect to our headphones and televisions and projectors. Everything is a screen these days, and most of us are looking at one more often than we aren’t.
My screen time on my phone is just over five hours a day. That’s 36 percent less than last week. Yikes. On my laptop, my screen time is at least eight hours a day, and if you work a 9-to-5 in an office, I’m willing to bet you’re on a comparable level. So let me ask you this, comrade: Do your eyes ever hurt?
Mine sure do. I’m not a prescription glasses wearer, but I find myself struggling against eye strain after long hours of looking at my computer and phone, squinting at text and images. The blue light of my screens leaves me fatigued, even when all my devices are set into Night Mode, in which an orange tint is supposed to make the screen less straining. It’s been getting so bad lately—even with the orange tints on my screens—that I went the extra mile. I got blue light glasses (AKA glasses with orange-tinted lenses to combat blue-light exposure) from Caddis, and let me tell you—they’re a game changer.
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The eye relief is instantaneous
Although you could wear blue light glasses whenever you look at a screen, I prefer to ease into mine. Typically, once I feel my vision beginning to blur and my eyes tiring in the late afternoon of a workday, I pull out my Caddis blue light glasses, and they immediately take effect. When I’m on my computer, the text is easier to read; when I’m on my phone, things as simple as scrolling on Instagram or Twitter are made a thousand times better.
I’ve tried a handful of different blue light glasses in my life, and these are by far the best ones. Their price tag reflects not only the quality and durability of the frames, but the clarity of the lenses, too. When it comes to using blue light glasses, I don’t want to sacrifice eye relief for face comfort or vice versa, and Caddis has mastered the perfect balance of lightweight, clear glasses that aren’t a burden to wear.
Even if you aren’t someone who spends all day looking at a screen, I highly recommend keeping a pair of these on hand. Why get to the point where your eyes are fatigued at all, when you can combat it from the get-go?
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They’re stylish AF
I have 20/20 vision, so wearing glasses that I don’t technically need to see is absolutely not happening—unless, of course, the glasses are stylish and cool enough for me to want to wear them.
A general philosophy I have in life: If it’s chic enough for Gwyneth Paltrow to wear, it’s chic enough for me to wear. And Caddis frames are Paltrow-approved (yeah, she wore Caddis frames during the infamous ski-slope trial). No matter what your taste is, there are frames to suit your fancy: round frames and square frames and retro frames, frames with tinted lenses and frames with clear lenses, frames of blue or black or brown or tortoiseshell. I opted to try three pairs of different Caddis glasses, all with the blue light lenses: the Root Cause Analysis in Matte Gopher for a fun, ‘70s vibe; the Dogleg in Turtle for a smart, academic look; and the Tectonic in Black for a classic, everyday pair.
While the Root Cause Analysis glasses are my favorite simply because I like the oversized look on my face, all three of these pairs smashed it out of the park. In the past, I’ve ordered similar styles to the Dogleg and Tectonic from Amazon—they’ve all broken eventually, due to flimsy arms, lenses that pop out and get scratched, and all-around poor construction. With these, though, I feel like I’m wearing real, expensive glasses that’ll withstand the test of time (and the loose components of my tote bag).
Even as someone who doesn’t wear glasses regularly, I don’t find myself bothered by the unfamiliar feel of these on my face. They’re lightweight enough to where I forget I’m wearing them at times.
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Glasses-wearers and non-glasses wearers can enjoy them
The beauty of Caddis glasses is that they’re so customizable. While I opted for clear lenses with a blue light filter, their styles are also available with different lens tints and prescriptions, if you want to add a blue light filter to readers or prescription lenses.
Caddis already has an abundance of frames to choose from, and when you find a style you like, chances are there will be different colors for you to pick from within that style. If you want a barely there, wire-frame style, you got it; if you prefer a thick, colorful frame, there’s that, too.
Even if I had prescription glasses, I’d definitely still get a pair of Caddis frames with a blue light filter on my prescription. Now that I’ve seen how easy it makes using screens, how could I ever go back?
Photography by Joe Lingeman. Prop styling by Heather Greene.
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