6 ms·

I had 2020 vision till 2012 (39 years old then). I am convinced that my myopia onset was perceptibly accelerated with the purchase of my first "smart phone". An

by ak39 7y ago

I had 2020 vision till 2012 (39 years old then). I am convinced that my myopia onset was perceptibly accelerated with the purchase of my first "smart phone". And the constant use of it: Whatsapp & twitter. Can the damage be reversed?

hmottestad 7y ago
I'm 31 and I had perfect vision just 3 or so years ago. I got my first smart phone 6 years ago and I too wonder if I would have better vision today if I had used it less. And right now I'm wondering if I should create a regiment of "looking outside" for an hour every day at work. Maybe that would help at least stop things from getting worse.
- canardlaquay 7y ago
  Be careful - the study clearly states that what's important to keep a good vision is exposure to (supposedly natural?) bright light. There's no real link between too much screen-time and a decline of it as the article states.
  - geomark 7y ago
    I gather that screen time is a contributing factor only because when you are staring at a screen you probably are not doing it outside in bright sunlight.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  I definitely notice my vision getting worse when I use my phone for a while. Especially long or mid distance view suffers. It takes a few minutes to hours to get back to normal. Laptop screens have much less of this effect.
tluyben2 7y ago
Is there any proof/research that it is because of smartphones (screens?)? My anecdote; I have had myopia since I was 7 (I am 45 now), 1 year before my first computer. Since then I have spent most my waking life behind screens and my myopia has been getting less slowly since my first glasses. I now can see quite well without glasses which I could not do 15+ years ago. Also, I should be up for reading glasses soon, but I can read the tiniest fonts on the tiniest screens without reading glasses (I need my normal glasses for that though), which gives me a lot of real estate on small devices (for instance working on a 4k remote desktop on my iPad pro 10inch; of course it does not show the entire desktop at once (you scroll which makes it really a nice kind of 'virtual desktop' system for me) but for me it's comfortable to read while other people cannot even see what i'm doing as the fonts are really minuscule). My eyes don't get tired though and never have on screens, even when screens where crappy flickering low res CRT things (huge fonts of course, compared to what I use now). Maybe the spending time outside is more related to it as this article says; I work almost exclusively outside. I abhor cold so I only spend my days in warm climes where I work outside behind my computer/phone/tablet/... for the entire day. When I have meetings, I try to get people to meet outside, which usually works (most people like this far more than staying inside, even if it's chilly, but not with freeze/rain/snow of course).
- fullstop 7y ago
  > I now can see quite well without glasses which I could not do 15+ years ago. This happened to me at 40. The eye doctor explained that human eyes get thicker and more leathery as we age, which changes their shape. So if you're myopic before this time, you have a decent chance of having improved vision. It eventually goes the other way, though, and reading glasses or bifocals are needed to correct your vision.
- mywacaday 7y ago
  Pre smartphone days(1997) but when I was in college I had to get glasses to see the whiteboard at the end of the first year spent looking at monitors and a drafting board for large periods of the day. I spent my summers lifeguarding on a beach so three months off staring hard into the distance from 10am to 7pm 6 days a week with hardly any screen time. When returning to college in September I could see the board without glasses for the first 2-3 months but then would revert to needing glasses. This cycle repeated itself for several years but the time reverting to glasses got shorter each year. Sample size of 1, YMMV
  - EForEndeavour 7y ago
    Fascinating story, and I love the implication that you were lifeguarding without glasses. I know from personal experience that bright sunlight improves visual acuity (bright images, pupil constriction, and squinting all help), so obviously you were able to do your job, but the mental image is pretty funny!
    - mywacaday 7y ago
      I actually never though of that and had a good laugh reading your comment. I had to pass a medical with an eye test for the job so I presume I was safe. Eyesight is a complicated thing, I have one eye much worse than the other, can read the monitor fine with my right eye and not at all with my left eye. I can use a monitor OK for an hour or two with no glasses but after that I get a headache. My right eye defiantly compensates for my left.
imgabe 7y ago
Yes you can get Lasik.
- 0xcafecafe 7y ago
  My wife got lasik 7 years back in her early 20s. Now she just got diagnosed with astigmatism when she was complaining of vision issues. She is back to wearing glasses for some part of the day. Lasik can certainly help the OP but not guaranteed. It's weird how our eyes change shape as we age.
- Forbo 7y ago
  Lasik is destructive, if you're a candidate another option to consider would be IOL. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intraocular_lens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intraocular_lens
kr4 7y ago
You can try a yogic practice (Trataka – Still Gazing). >>> Many years ago, someone who used to work for me was struggling with poor memory. He wanted to be alert and disciplined but it was almost like laziness was a disease and he was suffering from it. Not in the physical sense because he was out and about working on stuff all the time but there was no productivity, focus or any significant output. We (him and I) figured he severely lacked focus. I told him to practice trataka for three months every day. It would help him with his memory and focus. He followed the instructions diligently and at the end of three months, there was remarkable improvement in his memory and recall. But, memory improvement wasn’t the main thing. As a result of the practice, another, totally unexpected, thing happened. He reported a blurred vision in spite of wearing spectacles. He went to the optometrist only to find out that he no longer needed the prescription glasses (for short-sightedness or myopia). He had been wearing glasses for more than a decade. I’ve observed on numerous occasions that yogic practices do channelize the flow of various energies in the body. It changes your gaze, gait and movements. It even affects your speech in its own positive way. You slow down a bit but become more effective, more mindful. An unfailing sign of a true yogi is stillness of the gaze. Even some advanced meditators struggle to keep their eyeballs still (even when their eyes are closed). Stillness of the gaze has a remarkable effect on the energy flow in your body. There is a specific yogic practice to perfect your gaze. The method of fixing your gaze on an object is called trāṭaka. Movement in the eyes, flickering of the eyelids represent a subtle flaw in your posture as well as meditation. Practice of trataka is the best practice to eliminate this flaw. Like all other yogic practices, do it every day for at least 40 days to benefit from it. Excerpted from: https://www.amazon.com/Million-Thoughts-Meditation-Himalayan-Mystic/dp/8184959451 https://www.amazon.com/Million-Thoughts-Meditation-Himalayan...
fullstop 7y ago
Your eyes change shape as you age -- they get more "leathery". In my case, I had myopia from about 16 until I was 40, although I stopped wearing glasses a few years before I hit 40 because I found that I didn't really need them. My eyes are "rounder" now than they were when I was 16, and it will eventually go the other way and I will need bifocals / reading glasses. Your body changes a lot around the 40 year mark and I don't think that it's related, at all, to your smart phone. I'm sure that those older than us can tell us what to expect in the next decade.
- epmaybe 7y ago
  I'm not sure if scleral remodeling the reason. My understanding was that the lens part of your eye became less elastic as you aged, you can't focus as near, and you became more farsighted as a result - a phenomenon called presbyopia. Thus, if you were nearsighted before, you'd be closer to regular vision or maybe even a little farsighted, needing reading glasses to focus closer up.
sprflyprgrmrguy 7y ago
I'm in my mid 30's, 2020 vision, have been in front of a computer for the last 20+ years, and smart phone since the first android phone. I still have 2020 vision.
- chakintosh 7y ago
  I believe genetics play a role in that. We are 7 siblings, every one of us has myopia. My parents too.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
jen_h 7y ago
Aldous Huxley swore by the Bates Method (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Seeing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Seeing). I went through a period where I tried it and it did seem to help, but YMMV, not scientifically-proven, etc. etc. I will say that the people with the best eyes I know (one was a fighter pilot, and still has great eyesight into his 70s) spent a lot of time outside tromping through the woods and read a lot -- so had a habit of switching back and forth between close-reading and far-gazing. Whether it helps or not (and I believe it does, when I forget for a few days, my glasses seem too weak), it isn't the worst idea to look up from the phone or laptop and focus faraway a few times an hour. I don't know if you can fix presbyopia, though...I think that's something that just happens like clockwork at 40. :/

by ak39 7y ago

hmottestad 7y ago

I'm 31 and I had perfect vision just 3 or so years ago. I got my first smart phone 6 years ago and I too wonder if I would have better vision today if I had used it less. And right now I'm wondering if I should create a regiment of "looking outside" for an hour every day at work. Maybe that would help at least stop things from getting worse.

canardlaquay 7y ago
Be careful - the study clearly states that what's important to keep a good vision is exposure to (supposedly natural?) bright light. There's no real link between too much screen-time and a decline of it as the article states.
- geomark 7y ago
  I gather that screen time is a contributing factor only because when you are staring at a screen you probably are not doing it outside in bright sunlight.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
I definitely notice my vision getting worse when I use my phone for a while. Especially long or mid distance view suffers. It takes a few minutes to hours to get back to normal. Laptop screens have much less of this effect.

tluyben2 7y ago

Is there any proof/research that it is because of smartphones (screens?)? My anecdote; I have had myopia since I was 7 (I am 45 now), 1 year before my first computer. Since then I have spent most my waking life behind screens and my myopia has been getting less slowly since my first glasses. I now can see quite well without glasses which I could not do 15+ years ago. Also, I should be up for reading glasses soon, but I can read the tiniest fonts on the tiniest screens without reading glasses (I need my normal glasses for that though), which gives me a lot of real estate on small devices (for instance working on a 4k remote desktop on my iPad pro 10inch; of course it does not show the entire desktop at once (you scroll which makes it really a nice kind of 'virtual desktop' system for me) but for me it's comfortable to read while other people cannot even see what i'm doing as the fonts are really minuscule). My eyes don't get tired though and never have on screens, even when screens where crappy flickering low res CRT things (huge fonts of course, compared to what I use now). Maybe the spending time outside is more related to it as this article says; I work almost exclusively outside. I abhor cold so I only spend my days in warm climes where I work outside behind my computer/phone/tablet/... for the entire day. When I have meetings, I try to get people to meet outside, which usually works (most people like this far more than staying inside, even if it's chilly, but not with freeze/rain/snow of course).

fullstop 7y ago
> I now can see quite well without glasses which I could not do 15+ years ago. This happened to me at 40. The eye doctor explained that human eyes get thicker and more leathery as we age, which changes their shape. So if you're myopic before this time, you have a decent chance of having improved vision. It eventually goes the other way, though, and reading glasses or bifocals are needed to correct your vision.
mywacaday 7y ago
Pre smartphone days(1997) but when I was in college I had to get glasses to see the whiteboard at the end of the first year spent looking at monitors and a drafting board for large periods of the day. I spent my summers lifeguarding on a beach so three months off staring hard into the distance from 10am to 7pm 6 days a week with hardly any screen time. When returning to college in September I could see the board without glasses for the first 2-3 months but then would revert to needing glasses. This cycle repeated itself for several years but the time reverting to glasses got shorter each year. Sample size of 1, YMMV
- EForEndeavour 7y ago
  Fascinating story, and I love the implication that you were lifeguarding without glasses. I know from personal experience that bright sunlight improves visual acuity (bright images, pupil constriction, and squinting all help), so obviously you were able to do your job, but the mental image is pretty funny!
  - mywacaday 7y ago
    I actually never though of that and had a good laugh reading your comment. I had to pass a medical with an eye test for the job so I presume I was safe. Eyesight is a complicated thing, I have one eye much worse than the other, can read the monitor fine with my right eye and not at all with my left eye. I can use a monitor OK for an hour or two with no glasses but after that I get a headache. My right eye defiantly compensates for my left.

imgabe 7y ago

Yes you can get Lasik.

0xcafecafe 7y ago
My wife got lasik 7 years back in her early 20s. Now she just got diagnosed with astigmatism when she was complaining of vision issues. She is back to wearing glasses for some part of the day. Lasik can certainly help the OP but not guaranteed. It's weird how our eyes change shape as we age.
Forbo 7y ago
Lasik is destructive, if you're a candidate another option to consider would be IOL. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intraocular_lens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intraocular_lens

kr4 7y ago

You can try a yogic practice (Trataka – Still Gazing). >>> Many years ago, someone who used to work for me was struggling with poor memory. He wanted to be alert and disciplined but it was almost like laziness was a disease and he was suffering from it. Not in the physical sense because he was out and about working on stuff all the time but there was no productivity, focus or any significant output. We (him and I) figured he severely lacked focus. I told him to practice trataka for three months every day. It would help him with his memory and focus. He followed the instructions diligently and at the end of three months, there was remarkable improvement in his memory and recall. But, memory improvement wasn’t the main thing. As a result of the practice, another, totally unexpected, thing happened. He reported a blurred vision in spite of wearing spectacles. He went to the optometrist only to find out that he no longer needed the prescription glasses (for short-sightedness or myopia). He had been wearing glasses for more than a decade. I’ve observed on numerous occasions that yogic practices do channelize the flow of various energies in the body. It changes your gaze, gait and movements. It even affects your speech in its own positive way. You slow down a bit but become more effective, more mindful. An unfailing sign of a true yogi is stillness of the gaze. Even some advanced meditators struggle to keep their eyeballs still (even when their eyes are closed). Stillness of the gaze has a remarkable effect on the energy flow in your body. There is a specific yogic practice to perfect your gaze. The method of fixing your gaze on an object is called trāṭaka. Movement in the eyes, flickering of the eyelids represent a subtle flaw in your posture as well as meditation. Practice of trataka is the best practice to eliminate this flaw. Like all other yogic practices, do it every day for at least 40 days to benefit from it. Excerpted from: https://www.amazon.com/Million-Thoughts-Meditation-Himalayan-Mystic/dp/8184959451 https://www.amazon.com/Million-Thoughts-Meditation-Himalayan...

fullstop 7y ago

Your eyes change shape as you age -- they get more "leathery". In my case, I had myopia from about 16 until I was 40, although I stopped wearing glasses a few years before I hit 40 because I found that I didn't really need them. My eyes are "rounder" now than they were when I was 16, and it will eventually go the other way and I will need bifocals / reading glasses. Your body changes a lot around the 40 year mark and I don't think that it's related, at all, to your smart phone. I'm sure that those older than us can tell us what to expect in the next decade.

epmaybe 7y ago
I'm not sure if scleral remodeling the reason. My understanding was that the lens part of your eye became less elastic as you aged, you can't focus as near, and you became more farsighted as a result - a phenomenon called presbyopia. Thus, if you were nearsighted before, you'd be closer to regular vision or maybe even a little farsighted, needing reading glasses to focus closer up.

sprflyprgrmrguy 7y ago

I'm in my mid 30's, 2020 vision, have been in front of a computer for the last 20+ years, and smart phone since the first android phone. I still have 2020 vision.

chakintosh 7y ago
I believe genetics play a role in that. We are 7 siblings, every one of us has myopia. My parents too.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

jen_h 7y ago

Aldous Huxley swore by the Bates Method (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Seeing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Seeing). I went through a period where I tried it and it did seem to help, but YMMV, not scientifically-proven, etc. etc. I will say that the people with the best eyes I know (one was a fighter pilot, and still has great eyesight into his 70s) spent a lot of time outside tromping through the woods and read a lot -- so had a habit of switching back and forth between close-reading and far-gazing. Whether it helps or not (and I believe it does, when I forget for a few days, my glasses seem too weak), it isn't the worst idea to look up from the phone or laptop and focus faraway a few times an hour. I don't know if you can fix presbyopia, though...I think that's something that just happens like clockwork at 40. :/