Throughout our lifetime, we’ve been blessed (or cursed) with the ability to watch TV, movies, live stream or just about watch anything, any time and anywhere. We even have to ability to search the worldwide web from the very palm of our hands! With so much advanced technology, people constantly have their eyes glued to screens and for long periods of time at that. Could this be a cause for blindness or strains on our eyes? Or is sitting to close to a screen the real cause of future eye problems?
A doctor from the American Academy of Ophthalmology made a bold statement and concluded that he wouldn’t be concerned and that sitting close or far away will remotely have physical no effect on the eyes but eye strains and fatigue are possible from watching at odd angles. This conclusion is not solely based on experiment and seems to be purely from Dr. Duffner’s own observations. From this, we can’t prove that sitting close does or does not have an affect on our eyes. We also can’t assume correlation equal causation because we have no evidence and have not results from any trials or experiments.
In turn, another researcher who wanted to develop more on this topic proposed, “sitting close to a TV (or screen) does not make children nearsighted, but nearsighted children sit closer to the TV or screen.” While this reverse causation is feasible, there is no consideration as to what could have caused the nearsightedness in the first place. Third variables are very possible here. The nearsightedness could be from genetics being passed on, or blurred vision and potential visual stress which could lead to sitting close to screens and ultimately, straining eyes.
With many more possible conclusions, it is hard to accept or reject this hypothesis. In my opinion, I think further tests need to be run and eye exams need to be given after excessive period of screen watching. Maybe running a double blind placebo trial and testing the vision and affect on eyes could provide a clearer consensus. The best way to prevent any type of future eye problems is to limit exposure to screens!
Sources:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-talk-tv-eyesight/
http://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/eye-and-vision-problems/glossary-of-eye-and-vision-conditions/myopia?sso=y#1
Growing up, my parents always told me and my brothers back up when we would watch TV because we were hindering our eyesight. After sitting close to the TV, I would notice that I would not feel as good and I usually developed a headache. I researched this topic and I found the same results that you talked about in your blog. While sitting close to the TV may have negative short term effects, it has not been proven to actually hurt or effect eye sight in anyway. I read that children have more of an ability to focus close to TVs than adults do. If children tend to sit very close to to the TV it may mean that they are nearsighted, but it will not cause them to be nearsighted.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/eyes/vision_facts_myths.html
Growing up my grandma used to always warn me about sitting close to the TV so this post really interested me. According to this article, http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/eye/tv-bad-for-eyes.htm , GE did a test which concluded that sitting close to the TV is bad because it’s an over exposure to x-rays, but other than that the only negative consequence is eyestrain, which is only a temporary problem.