Technology Bites

No, my headline is not missspelt! Last month I looked at some amazing technology that can save your eyesight. This month I want to examine how technology can bite us and cause long term detrimental damage to our eye sight.

It’s the end of my financial year and I have spent many hours each day on my laptop getting my paperwork ready for my accountants. Combine that with the hours spent on screen at work I reckon I am spending 10 or 11 hours per day on screen. I am sure I am not alone spending excessive time on screen. Thankfully, I don’t “do” social media and I don’t have Netflix etc. As adults we make informed choices about time spent on screen. Children are under massive pressure to be online, whether using smartphones or computers. In school they regularly use computers to assist their learning. At home most homework is now online, plus time spent on social media.

Using computers for learning is a necessary evil. I have two major concerns about kids and computer based learning. From a social viewpoint what about families that cannot afford a computer. Children can be evil and stigmatise their fellow pupils who cannot access a home computer. From an optometric viewpoint we are raising a generation of tech savvy kids who are developing myopia at an incredible rate. Children’s eyes typically develop and grow to focus naturally on what they spend most time looking at…in this generation of kids that’s smartphones and computers. It means everything beyond armslength appears blurred. I am seeing more and more kids developing myopia due to excessive near vision work. Research has shown our kids need to spend much less time on-line and much more time outdoors to help their eyes develop naturally with good all-round vision.