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Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

economist.com

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Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#151

Post by watwut »

silisili wrote: post #65

I feel like this has always been a rather obvious thing...for at least what nearly a century or more? The whole trope of glasses are for nerds. Kids who spend time reading a ton are nearsighted. I understood this in elementary school, when the only kids with glasses were the smart ones. (I hated reading, and did not wear glasses, so was not a 'smart one'). I became nearsighted not long after getting a home computer,…

If you don't read, you don't need glasses. If you don't use glasses and need them, you end up not reading and end up having trouble in school - being treated as dumb.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#152

Post by teamonkey »

CydeWeys wrote: post #141
msk-lywenn wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

‘Myopic’ is certainly used to describe short-term thinking or a restricted viewpoint

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#153

Post by JackMorgan »

mgdlbp wrote: post #125
eastbound wrote: post #74

Why can we have 2-lense glasses that move the focus to infinity? ELI5: In opticals, “rays” coming from a near object (=mobile phone) are angled, while rays coming from afar (=end of a landscape) are parallel. The job of pupils is to bend the rays from the focal point ahead to the focal point on the receptors in the eye. The eye is a rest when looking afar, because rays come parallel, and thus there isn’t much to do.…

You and I and a few others around the web all have had this idea of making screens look farther away, by changing focus with positive lenses and and binocular convergence using prisms. I actually wrote this comment with the math for determining the required prescription (since you can simply order them online) just a month ago.[1] I then found that the concept isn't uncommon when I discovered an older comment with th…

You might enjoy checking out https://endmyopia.org/

There's calculators on his site also for astigmatism. I think also a list of optometrists who will understand if you want weaker lenses.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#154

Post by shellac »

CydeWeys wrote: post #141
msk-lywenn wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

From very start of the article: "Leaders | What to do about myopia".

However 'myopic' is certainly used metaphorically. This is one of those cases where you just have to read the article.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#155

Post by excalibur »

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.

Making kids go to the beach in the rain isn't a great strategy either.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#156

Post by ejb999 »

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!

>>Making young kids study all the time is killing their eyesight! reply

I very much doubt kids 'studying too much' is the problem - staring at iphones all day watching tiktok and playing video games is more like it.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#157

Post by watwut »

gspr wrote: post #73
astrange wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re good if you don’t like stuff flying into your eyes when you’re outside.

Luckily you can still use them for that even if you no longer need them for vision correction :-)

and those are cheaper

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#158

Post by teknopaul »

mrkramer wrote: post #146

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.

I heard it said that it's lack of UV that does the damage, glass filters out UV. Sounds like it might be a resolvable problem without having kids take class outdoor.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#159

Post by toastal »

ejb999 wrote: post #156
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!

>>Making young kids study all the time is killing their eyesight! reply I very much doubt kids 'studying too much' is the problem - staring at iphones all day watching tiktok and playing video games is more like it.

I bet not long before that the old folks were complaining about the kids watching too much TV, reading too many comics, or playing too much backgammon.

Re: Shortsightedness has become an epidemic

#160

Post by FooHentai »

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!

Anecdata, but I lived in a low light environment for most of my life (North UK), then spend the last ~15 years in a much brighter environment (NZ). My prescription has dropped from a mid -5 to a low -4 in that time, which is a fairly large and uncommon improvement for someone middle aged. The optician put it down to where I've been living.
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