As children we’re often told that staring at a screen for too long will give you square eyes. Of course that’s not the case but it sows seeds of doubt in our minds – is staring at a screen for too long damaging for our eyes? do we need breaks every 15 minutes? what effect does it really have on our eyesight?
Yesterday i went for an eye test for the first time since i got my provisional drivers licence which is about 5 /6 years ago now. Back then i didn’t have glasses but i knew i would need them for driving and seeing long distance. Sure enough i did need them.
So how did i go from having perfect vision as a child to needing glasses as an adult? All of those hours spent watching television or on a computer? I would have said yes but i’m not so sure. Apparantly my eyesight has IMPROVED over the last 5 or 6 years despite the fact i spend more time than ever in front of not one screen, but two 
I only wear glasses for driving or in college if i’m looking up at a projector or at tiny handwriting on a whiteboard. When at a PC or watching TV or pretty much anywhere else, i never wear glasses. So i find it hard to believe my eyesight has improved. That would suggest there’s no link between staring at a monitor all day and eyesight deterioration (i never take any breaks or anything… i could be staring at a screen for hours on end).
Perhaps eyesight is easier to damage in childhood, i suppose it would make sense. If we break a leg as a child it heals quicker than if we break it as adults. Perhaps if we constantly ‘break’ our eyes as children by watching too much TV, we don’t give them enough time to heal and eventually they get ‘stuck’ broken as our healing ability slows down. Maybe someone has more scientific answers 😉 …
Laser Eye surgery is something on my very long term to do list but it’s expensive & time consuming and not to mention risky. You’d need about €3k in cash, a month to recover fully and a certain degree of mental steel. There’s always that 1% chance you could end up worse than when you went in.
I love how it’s advertised as ‘from €595 per eye’. As if anyone is just going to get one eye done (assuming they have two eyes!). When you do your research you find out that’s the more painful, more risky option. There are of course different types of laser eye surgery and the ‘better’, safer, more advanced options all tend to go up in price.
It’s clever… obviously the €595 operation is completely safe and works – otherwise they wouldn’t carry it out. At the same time it’s human nature to want to protect and get the best possible care for our bodies, so most of us get sucked in to buying the best even though it may make no difference at all…. Peace of mind. One of the most powerful sales tools ever invented 🙂
For now, it’s still glasses for me. With them on, i have better than 20/20 vision and with them off, everything in the distance is pretty blurry. It’s like standard definition -v- high definition. With glasses on, i get high definition. Fingers crossed my eyesight keeps improving… my trick is to spend all day every day staring at a screen or two
Some people would only get one eye lasered, though. I only have a prescription in one eye, the other has 20/20 vision, so I’d only need to get laser surgery in one eye!
i knew someone would come along and question that 🙂 i suppose you’re right, there are people either with only one functioning eye or only need a prescription for one…
Its not the computer…..its how much time we spent on computer….Anything in Excess is bad!!!!!