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Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

economist.com

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Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#141

Post by CydeWeys »

msk-lywenn wrote: post #128
mikewarot wrote: post #126

Pet peeve about language use: I thought it was obvious that short-sightedness (Exclusively Short term thinking) is an epidemic, nobody on Wall Street can see past the next Quarter's numbers. I don't need the economist to point that out. Nearsightedness is what this article is about... a completely different thing. I've dealt with that my entire life... and just went through the knock-on effect of retina detachment, a…

I have very bad eyesight too. May I ask what is your correction? (Not sure it’s the proper word in English, but the thing measured in dioptres?)

Not him, but myopia is the correct medical term. It only has one meaning, whereas "short-sighted" has a widely used metaphorical meaning that it is easily confused with.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#142

Post by watwut »

mattlondon wrote: post #57
inglor_cz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we manage to have a kid, long walks everyday are planned :) More movement, less screen time is always good for health, parents' and kids' alike. Also, getting used to all sorts of weather improves the immune system. By spending too much time indoors we are becoming glasshouse flowers.

Good luck with the plan :) Under the age of about 1 to 1.5 then you get to call the shots of what happens when. Walk as mu h as you like. After that age, the kids start to get their own opinions and won't always just do what you want them to do. You may want to go for a long walk, but the kid wants to do something else. They'll spend 95% of the time trying to escape the buggy/stroller or trying to run off or just sit…

It is not necessary that bad. I had some fights with kids at that age, but it definitely was not every single time we walked. You are exaggerating how bad it is.

What you do is normal at that age. If you walk to store frequently it is normal routine and lead to fights only occasionally. And while kid stops to look at boring things, it is not like they would stop for hours, most of time you nudge them after few seconds and they go.

It is slower then adult speed, but not that impossibly slow.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#143

Post by watwut »

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #123
XorNot wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wisdom teeth used to just be a problem that either killed you, or you lived with lots of pain from, or you paid a guy to try and do something about them. I don't know why people are so big on "we used to not need X in the distant past" tropes: yes we did, but we also just let lots of people die from it, or live a life of agony or being shunned as ugly/unclean/unable.

Only Americans are afraid of wisdom teeth. 90 percent of the rest of the world keep them with no problems whatsoever. (Something something medical cartel...)

Where you got that from? They are surgically removed outside of USA regularly when they grow bad and cause infections.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#144

Post by charles_kaw »

wiseowise wrote: post #39
nilsbunger wrote: post #2

I didn’t realize the evidence is strong that daylight keeps kids from becoming near-sighted. Making young kids study all the time is killing their eyesight!

I spent all my childhood outside and still near-sighted.

One person's anecdote does not qualify or disqualify a concept.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#145

Post by stevenhuang »

silisili wrote: post #70
fillerInk wrote: post #23

Not just with light, spending more time indoors means kids don't have to focus their eyes on longer distances these days. There would be a correlation between the amount of time spent indoors during the formative years and the chances of becoming myopic in the future.

Agreed. My wife had no electricity for her child life, but is nearsighted... probably from reading books all the time as a kid. I don't believe that light has anything to do with it.

You don't think reading in a low light environment has anything to do with it...?

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#146

Post by mrkramer »

I usually don't agree with The Economist but I agree with them on this one, people spend too much time indoor and that's why there is an epidemic of shortsightedness.

I would actually call it pandemic because it is affecting all developed countries because majority of their workforce works indoor and then goes home or to the gym....again indoor environment.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#147

Post by ajsnigrutin »

nilsbunger wrote: post #2

I didn’t realize the evidence is strong that daylight keeps kids from becoming near-sighted. Making young kids study all the time is killing their eyesight!

Yep... focusing (as in, your eyes keeping focus) on a thing that's at a fixed distance infront of you for extended periods of time seems to be very bad for your eyesight... "back in my times", the parents used to blame stuff like this on screens (tv back then), but books do the same thing. Basically all the workplace safety trainings here include the "stare at something in the distance every now and then", so you focus on something else, not just the screen <1m away from your face.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#148

Post by watwut »

ldx1024 wrote: post #79

It may just be a pet peeve, but it rankles me a bit when the term "epidemic" is used to describe widespread conditions that are not communicable/infectuous. Looking at the dictionary it appears the usage here is legitimate, but my guess would be that it is a misuse that has become accepted, like using the term "begging the question" to mean suggesting the question.

Given that it was used this way consistently for over hundred years including back in Homer text, one could argue it is not misuse at all.

Medicine started to use already existing word, which is fine, but it does not mean original meaning must be erased.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#149

Post by tominous »

Almost all children are born hypermetropic (far-sighted). The growth of the eyeball is calibrated by the amount of defocus (blur) experienced. More defocus, more growth, which reduces hypermetropia.

My hypothesis is that less sunlight means wider pupils and more defocus (contrast to a pinhole camera), so more eye growth.

Even with perfect eyesight, there's a 2-diopter difference between focussing blue light and red light due to chromatic aberration. Only narrow pupils can reduce this blur in white light.

I'm also curious whether older TVs with big blurry pixels (or low res images upscaled and smeared onto newer screens) trigger the same mechanism. These days I certainly feel physically uncomfortable looking at media like that, like my eyes aren't focussing quite right.

The other problem is that once eyes have grown too long and are myopic (near-sighted) they experience even more defocus and grow more. See for example [1] which discusses how under-correction of myopia accelerates progression.

[1] https://reviewofmm.com/does-the-undercorrection-of-myopia-in...

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#150

Post by throw0101c »

frereubu wrote: post #107
vasco wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should've stopped at the scoff. Someone qualified to handle children in a classroom and in field trips is already qualified to take them to a beach.

I think you may be misunderstanding, which is perhaps understandable given that I didn't unpack what it meant - see my sibling comment. But scoffing without asking for more information isn't a great strategy for learning.

> But scoffing without asking for more information isn't a great strategy for learning.

See the dart game scene from Ted Lasso:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ4YSXv6Xkg

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