All This Quarantine Screen Time May Be Ruining Your Eyesight
And blue blockers probably won’t help
I’ve taken to wearing my new reading glasses during meals. This stupid pandemic has destroyed my eyesight, and blurry food, I’ve discovered, is unappetizing. I’m middle-aged. My vision was bound to deteriorate sooner rather than later. But my sight’s rapid decline has made me fearful for my kids. What is six hours of Zoom a day doing to their young, plump eyeballs?
I recently attended a virtual seminar called Eyes on Screens: Maintaining Your Kids’ Ocular Health in a Digital World, put together by Children and Screens. Much of what I learned applies to adults, too. Let’s start with the one piece of good news: Kids are learning to read at a much earlier age, according to Dr. Ken Sorkin, a pediatric optometrist. But, since they do the majority of that reading on screens, vision problems are starting earlier too. Parents often ask why their child blinks all the time, rubs their eyes, or complains of headaches. If their child already has glasses, they’re alarmed at how often they have to update their child’s prescription. In Asia, the problem is already widespread. Even before Covid, 90% of college students in China were shortsighted.
Kids are learning to read at a much earlier age, according to Dr…
