Light is making your body earlier?
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Hi,
I'm a big fan of this app and have it installed on both my home and work computers.
Can you please fix the English used in the description line (attached). I think all the different statuses have some issue.
Thanks!
Mbawkher
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This is proper English. You just have to understand what it means. It means it's affecting your circadian rhythm. There is no better way to say it without using far more words. So, instead of having a big paragraph on the window explaining what effect light is currently having on you, it's best to just say that it's making your body earlier or later - which is exactly what's happening.
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I love these posts I do. We are trying to explain the difference between light you see in the morning and light you see at night - when you're sensitive to light and by how much.
i.e. this message shows up when you're (a) reasonably sensitive and (b) when that sensitivity would translate to moving your internal clock earlier the next day.
If f.lux were controlling all the light you see, we could talk about how the overall schedule affects you, but as it is, we don't control the sun or your office lighting, etc. So we are trying to explain how you are responding to all the light around you right now.
My guess is that we need another word for "making" because it is somewhat indefinite. We will think about this...
As @TwoCables mentioned, we do not have room for: "Light you see right now is setting your circadian clock earlier" but we are still trying to jam this idea into a pretty small space.
All the visualizations I tried did not work as well either.
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I would also like to request that the messages get fixed. My first impression of Flux was that it was designed by someone whose first language isn't English.
"My guess is that we need another word for "making" because it is somewhat indefinite. We will think about this.."
Nope, that's not the problem at all. The problem is more with the words "earlier/later", or "body".
"Light is making your body earlier." Earlier than what?
"Light is making your body later." Again, you haven't defined what I am late for, or what I am later than.
A person can be early, or late, but we never say "Your body was late for work today". That just sounds strange.
I suggest hiring a copywriter or editor to help you with the messages you want to convey.
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@Emmet-Brown We are trying to make you realize that your body has a clock that keeps time, entirely apart from the normal "clock" that everyone uses. It may be a difficult concept, but it's true to the biology.
This clock is set by light, and helping people understand how it works is sort of the reason f.lux exists.
I don't know if you're saying that you don't believe in this clock, or that you think we've described it badly.
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@herf "I don't know if you're saying that you don't believe in this clock, or that you think we've described it badly."
That would be the latter. : )
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The more and more you understand the science and whatnot, the more and more the phrases make sense. When light is making your body later, it means that you will likely feel like going to sleep later than usual and you'll wake up later than usual. Light is making your body later. Staying with that every day will definitely reset your biological clock to be later.
If light is currently making your body earlier, then you have the potential for being able to go to bed earlier and maybe even wake up earlier the next day. You could stay on track and reset your biological clock to be earlier.
So of course, this is really referring to long-term effects on your circadian rhythm because it doesn't change in 1 day. It's all about helping you adjust your biological clock.
So again, it's just about the best way to describe what effect light is having on you without trying to fit a big paragraph on the window.
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Hi All,
I appreciate everyone putting on their feedback but I feel that some have misinterpreted what I met (or perhaps I didn't explain myself properly).
My constructive criticism was only directed towards the grammar of the language used, not the science behind the circadian rhythm.
I understand that character constraints limit the amount of explanation that can be provided. But maybe the developers can tell us, the users what the chapter constraints are. I am sure many of us would be happy to help and attempt to fit the complexities of the circadian rhythm into a simple 50-60 character sentence which could then be implemented into the program.
Just my thoughts. Thanks.
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@TwoCables You're not understanding, the problem is PURELY A GRAMMATICAL problem. It has nothing to do with the science. "Light is making your body later." is not a proper sentence. I'm not sure how else to explain it.
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Gentle reminder: please don't downvote people simply because you disagree with what they are saying.
The text "Light is making your body later" is not a typographical error. It's a description of the physiological effect of light on your body. At a certain time in the day, exposure to light makes your body earlier. At a later time, exposure to light makes your body later. We are enjoying the discussion about why you like it or why it makes you mad. Now, go forth and dissect our grammar! Just keep it polite.
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@lorna "The text "Light is making your body later" is not a typographical error."
Correct! It is a grammatical error. There is a difference. : ) Typographical error refers to the spelling of the words, whereas grammatical error refers to the way in which words are put together to form proper sentences.
If I was in grade school and I wrote an essay with the sentence "_______ is making my body later." my teacher would hand it back with big red letters saying "incomplete sentence, later than what?". I understand you have a character limit and you have a limited amount of space, but taking shortcuts on the language makes your product look unprofessional. Just trying to help!
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If the clock in my car is 15 minutes late, and I go fix it, what did I do?
"I fixed it! I made the clock 15 minutes earlier."
And if you say "than what?" you are being pedantic.
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We have some new text written, but I think there is some basic assumption missing that I want to understand, and I don't think it's exactly about grammar.
I think of my body as "having" an internal clock and thus as "having" a sense of time.
So when I think about phase shifting an organism earlier or later, it's circadian jargon for adjusting that clock (or set of clocks). And it may mean something else to people who do not read circadian research all day.
Sometimes language (and mis-use of language) enables us to encode new concepts, and if there is one frustration in working on f.lux, it's that very few people understand even a little bit how these systems in their body, ones that are important to health, immunity, alertness, safety, obesity, and tons of other systems--work, or in some cases, even exist.
So I am extremely happy if I make people say what IS that? But I would prefer that they can Google it and learn about it rather than just hate the grammar I used. So we will keep trying.
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pardon me, @Emmet-Brown, that was a comment someone made in another thread, not you. So to make sure I'm understanding you, let me try to restate: your main complaint is that casual / idiomatic use of the English language doesn't feel right in this context?
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@herf "I made the clock 15 minutes earlier." in that context it is technically incorrect though. That sounds like you manufactured the clock 15 minutes ago.
"I set the clock 15 minutes earlier." would be the correct wording.
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@herf right, if we're discussing grammar instead of circadian biology something has gone off the rails
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So you are reading "making your body" as "creating your body.....later"?
Yes the new language would help this. :)
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@herf no, "making" isn't the problem there like I explained earlier.
But to answer your question, making in that context reads more as "Light is causing your body..." than "Light is creating your body..."
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@lorna My main complaint is that "Light is making your body earlier" and "Light is making your body later" are not proper sentences. They are grammatically incorrect.
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Locking thread for the time being, we seem to be going in circles.
