Why is modern eyesight so bad? - Is the eye care industry a scam?

[Ser Prize]

So according to modern statistics eyesight is getting increasingly bad, despite eye care being more widespread than ever.

Why is this? Why isn't modern eyesight getting better? And why does worse eyesight correspond to literacy rates?

 

[Testacles Maximus]

It’s these kids and their game boys.

 

[Absolutego]

>And why does worse eyesight correspond to literacy rates?
Because, as useful as the written word is, human eyes aren't actually meant to puzzle out teeny-weeny 12 point font, they're meant to distinguish good fruit from bad.

 

[Ser Prize]

>And why does worse eyesight correspond to literacy rates?
Because, as useful as the written word is, human eyes aren't actually meant to puzzle out teeny-weeny 12 point font, they're meant to distinguish good fruit from bad.

So do you think reading negatively impact eyesight?

 

[Super Dilator Duel 3D]

It's increased, widespread screen usage over all age groups + the fact that the average person really doesn't give that much of a shit about their own health/well-being. There's your answer.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Excessive blue light from too much screen time?

 

[Kendall Motor Oil]

There was an eyesight issue before screens so I don't think "those dang computers" is the (sole) reason.

 

[Grub]

Personally I think the abundance of led lighting has something to do with it. Leds are everywhere these days and they're a lot brighter than most people realize. Even with lens covers. Even most screens these days are actually leds.

They changed the lighting at one of my old jobs. It was a shop in a big warehouse with high ceilings so the lights were pretty high up. We had just the regular fluorescent tube lights. After they changed the lights a few of my coworkers were complaining about their eyes hurting and having headaches for a few weeks after. It turns out they switched the lights with leds that look like those fluorescent tube lights.

I've never really liked led lights. I don't like the light they put out. They make my eyes hurt. The light just always seems kind of unnatural. Even the yellowy coloured ones don't look right. I went camping not long ago and I had both an led lantern with me and a coleman white gas lantern. The led one is pretty bright, it puts out a yellowy white light. I didn't really end up using it at all.

The coleman lantern though I used every single night for hours and that $18 I spent in gas to run it was worth every penny. The light it puts out just immediately makes the campsite feel comfy and nice. Especially during a fireban when all you can get away with is throwing some sticks on a portable charcoal grill. That warm, soft light, that wasn't actually quite as bright as the led, made hanging out in the dark much nicer. The led lantern made everything all eerie and weird looking and i'm definitely glad it was not my only source of light.

 

[millais]

There was an eyesight issue before screens so I don't think "those dang computers" is the (sole) reason.

It definitely predates the widespread use of computers and handheld screens.

I think even reading too many books and texts in childhood can be bad for the eyes, although it's good for the mind. That's why myopia is universal in East Asia since 100 years ago, they spend tens of hours a day staring at books during their formative years.

 

[Pampered Degenerate]

I read an article about this a few years ago, based on the fact that myopia rates in China have increased hugely in the last century. Basically, it's more or less as @millais said, in that it was ascribed to not spending enough time outdoors during childhood, IIRC.

 

[Londo]

Because humanity was the first species to overcome nature.

Eyesight issues are genetic abnormality that in any previous era of the species wouldn't have been able to survive.

Without full eyesight someone wouldn't be able to fight efficiently; hunt properly; gather well; do much outside of the gifts offered by civilisations enabling them to do.

Because natural selection no longer applies to humans -- certain abnormalities are increasing such as bad eyesight. In nature the gene responsible for this wouldn't be able to spread.

The above is proven science.

The same also applies to women with small vaginal canals; C-sections enabled mothers who would otherwise die in childbirth, and by proxy also have their child die, to give birth that stops natural selection from removing those individuals from the species.

 

[Quioui]

Not enough exposure to sunlight

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=sunlight+myopia+children

 

[PetiteFeet]

Not enough sunlight, too much time on our devices. If you look at countries like Japan, the vast majority of the population need glasses. And what is Japan famous for? Technology, the humble salaryman working on his PC, the public transportation filled to the brim with people who text on their phones.

I don't remember where but I heard you can improve your eyesight if you spend more time outdoors.
I guess humanity hasn't evolved very much in the last 50-200 years and all of our modern luxuries are doing nothing good for us.

 

[Londo]

Not enough sunlight, too much time on our devices. If you look at countries like Japan, the vast majority of the population need glasses. And what is Japan famous for? Technology, the humble salaryman working on his PC, the public transportation filled to the brim with people who text on their phones.

I don't remember where but I heard you can improve your eyesight if you spend more time outdoors.
I guess humanity hasn't evolved very much in the last 50-200 years and all of our modern luxuries are doing nothing good for us.

Screens and television have never had any concrete proof of having an impact on eyesight.

In the instance of Japan, the reason so many people need glasses is due to an aging population -- humans likely were never meant to live this long and eyesight rapidly weakens with age. Countries with access to technology are no where near the worst regarding eyesight.

Now obviously that doesn't account for a lack of medical care and practioners trained in opti.

A lot of eyesight issues are genetic - mishapen pupils, lens issues, issues with colour receptors. Men interestingly are almost exclusively likely to get colour blindness.

Western and 1st/2nd world nations having higher rates of people wearing glasses has nothing to do with our technology; we're just better at diagnosing, recording and treating.

 

[Otis Mallebrok]

1) Too much time spend indoors
2) To much time focusing on things closer than, say, two meters distance.
3) People are getting older
4) Lack of evolutionary pressure lets people with poor eyesight pass their genetics on.

 

[Night Crawler]

Probably the same reason why everything else in the Western world is going to shit. Economic decline. Back in the 90's they had the phrase "it's the economy stupid". This is still true. As the economy declines in the US quality of life will decline and that means people's health will decline. They can't afford the care needed to keep their eyesight up. I remember watching a video on YouTube back in the late 2000's about a festival they have in Germany celebrating and memorializing East Germany. It's basically festival where a bunch of old people that lived in East Germany get together and talk about how great East Germany was and how modern Germany sucks. One thing all these people had in common was their screwed up looking teeth.

It's the same reason why you see issues like obesity and the rate of diabetes being on the rise. When your country goes through economic decline everything else declines with it. Even your health.

 

[David Brown]

Because humanity was the first species to overcome nature.

Eyesight issues are genetic abnormality that in any previous era of the species wouldn't have been able to survive.

Without full eyesight someone wouldn't be able to fight efficiently; hunt properly; gather well; do much outside of the gifts offered by civilisations enabling them to do.

Because natural selection no longer applies to humans -- certain abnormalities are increasing such as bad eyesight. In nature the gene responsible for this wouldn't be able to spread.

The above is proven science.

The same also applies to women with small vaginal canals; C-sections enabled mothers who would otherwise die in childbirth, and by proxy also have their child die, to give birth that stops natural selection from removing those individuals from the species.

where did the genes for bad eye sight and narrow vaginal canals come from? After 100,000 years of natural selection they still weren't eliminated? Or is it like Palpatine in the new Star Wars movie?

 

[Londo]

where did the genes for bad eye sight and narrow vaginal canals come from? After 100,000 years of natural selection they still weren't eliminated? Or is it like Palpatine in the new Star Wars movie?

Natural selection doesn't wipe out regressive genes. If an abnormality can pop up once it can pop up again or given enough population inbreediing and growth eventually it'll become active again and in an era when people aren't thrown to the cliffs or allowed to die by lion cause they couldn't see the thing coming it has a chance to arise again. Imagine it like a white couple who has a black baby but the baby is ACTUALLY tested as the child of the white father, but because there was a black person in the lineage say 3/4/5 generations down it somehow comes through. Ginger hair is an example of that too - you can have multiple generations with no ginger hair and then boom one generation will be nothing but gingers.

In the instance of narrow birth canals, the baby can be cut out. The child may not have the genetic composition to have a narrow birth canal but that doesn't mean that future generations won't.

Remember, all of us have the genetics possible to be like Cyrax or someone like that -- it just doesn't happen until the combination of enough individuals breeding with the same regression is enough for it to become notacable.

Same reason humans have evolutionary legacies from the days of having tails.

And to add to this,

Humans have never been truly cutthroat. Even in the era pre-historical records we know there are bodies of those who in nature never should have survived being able to reach an old age because those around them supported them despite their inability to hunt or whatever.

Someone may only have a slight visual impairment that doesn't kill their eyesight or usefulness, but their children may get it much worse if they have children with someone with the same issues. Genetics is fucky.

 

[std::string]

Screens and television have never had any concrete proof of having an impact on eyesight.

Smartphones do, especially in kids because their eyes are more malleable. Spending too much time using close-up focus (like you would when you're staring at a smartphone or tablet all day) lengthens your eyes by a mm or so, increasing the distance between the lens and the retina so that light reflected off the lens goes slightly in front of the retina instead of directly on it. This causes myopia.

There are contacts available now to stop this by the way (MiSight)

 

[WelperHelper99]

Personally, both my parents had eye issues yet I ended up with 20/20 vision. I guess I was outside a lot as a kid, but I also was on my PC alot too, so I couldn't tell you.