Something that I have always heard from adults is the sitting too close to the TV will damage your vision. Because of this claim, as a kid I always tried to sit as far away from the TV as I could because I did not want to go blind, and even today until I researched the matter, I always try to sit at a distance from the screen. I’ve always had good eyes, I have better than 20/20 vision and I never wanted to mess that up so this claim has always been on my mind, and therefore I as researched the matter.

As it turns out, sitting close to the TV has no effect on your vision at all. That distance at which you sit from the television screen does not damage your eyes in any way. It turns out that sitting close to the TV can actually be a good sign to parents that their kids might be nearsighted. If a kid has trouble seeing the TV he will sit closer to see it more clearly. In fact, children can focus at close distance with less eye strain then adults can, therefore it is less wearing on their eyes then it would be for an adult. Kids will eventually grow out this habit as they grow older. Lastly, there is no long term effects from sitting too close to the TV, but it does cause strain to your eyes. This is why you might have a headache or blurry vision after you’ve focused on a screen for too long, it’s not permanent, but it is temporary strain.

So where did this statement come from? It probably got its roots from the beginning of the television age in the 1960’s. As TVs were just starting to enter American homes, it turns out that early television sets had been emitting X-rays, especially General Electric color sets, which could be harmful to someone who was viewing the screen too closely. The problem was soon corrected but the caution to viewers remained. My personal belief to add to the harmful rays, is that as televisions became more popular, kids would start to pay more attention to the TV than to their parents, therefore mothers told them they would go blind if they sat too close to or watched too much tv that way they wouldn’t be distracted from their family time.

So in the end, no, sitting too close to the TV does not damage you eyes, it can actually be helpful in spotting early signs of nearsightedness in children. At one point in time it was harmful at the dawn of household televisions, but now it is merely a myth parents use to scare their children! This gives me great relief because it means I’m not going to loose my sight just from watching the TV too closely in my dorm! I hope it gives some ease to you too!