How Gadgets Are Hurting Your Children
The amount of time children spend looking at digital screens is concerning. Children don’t seem to get tired of watching TV or playing games with the iPad. This obsession with gadgets is cause for concern, but the immediate concern is their adverse impact on your vision.
Children use gadgets to play games, chat, watch the internet, or watch movies. The activity is usually so interesting to them that they do not divert their attention from the screen.
Spending too much time with electronic gadgets
They also don’t pay attention to things like posture, screen distance, and brightness, which can negatively affect their vision and health. Staring at electronic displays for long periods causes discomfort. They start with dry eye problems, eye irritation and find it difficult to concentrate for a while after spending so much time in front of screens.
Spending too long in one pose can also lead to neck and back pain. If you find it difficult to deal with screen time, imagine what your child’s eyes must go through. Digital screens have become an inseparable part of life. You cannot want them to disappear from life because this is not possible, but you can minimize their impact on your children.
Consequences of spending too much time looking at screens
The first step is to understand what you are up against. An average child spends approximately 8 hours a day looking at electronic screens. Gadget use among children increases with age. Although it cannot be said for sure, children who spend too much time staring at screens are at higher risk for long-term vision problems.
Besides televisions and video games, most devices arrived in the last two decades. While the immediate effects can be seen in children, its long-term effects are unknown.
Children who spend a lot of time with braces are likely to develop temporary myopia (myopia). Fortunately, the effect is transient and the eyes recover within minutes after switching to non-screen activity.
The effect of spending a lot of time looking at screens is not just limited to the eyes. In addition to symptoms like dry eyes, a burning sensation, double vision, and blurred vision, people also complain of headaches and posture-related problems, such as neck and back pain.
Doctors now call this set of symptoms ‘computer vision syndrome’. When people use electronic screens, they blink less. On average, a person blinks about 15 times in a minute.
Due to the great care that is required when using electronic gadgets and displays, this rate can drop to less than 5 times in a minute. Blink is a natural mechanism that keeps the eyes moist, lubricated and clean.
A lower blink rate causes dry eyes and irritation. The severity varies depending on the type of activity and the level of commitment. A video game, therefore, creates more eyestrain because you have to constantly watch and respond to what is happening on the screen.
Desktop computers and wall-mounted televisions can make things worse by making you look up. This causes you to open your eyes more and expose more of the eye surface to evaporation of tears.
Electronic displays can produce images with high brightness and contrast, and they can vary these images in a fraction of a second. They also reflect the glare of surrounding light sources, such as lamps and windows. Your eyes have to respond frequently to changing levels of light.
Beware of blue light and eye strain from gadgets
Looking at a screen that is too dim or bright compared to the surroundings also causes eyestrain. Your eyes have to adjust when you switch from the screen to the surroundings. Frequent dilation and contraction of the pupils causes eye fatigue.
Most modern devices come with LED screens because they produce clearer images and consume less power. The amount of blue light emitted by these displays is cause for concern.
LED displays emit much more blue light compared to LCD displays. Although research is limited, many optometrists suspect that blue light can cause irreversible damage to the retina.
This can increase the risk of macular degeneration and cataracts. The macula is the central part of the retina and is crucial for good vision. Macular degeneration can make daily activities like reading and driving impossible.
With age, the lenses of the eyes begin to turn yellow. For adults, this provides a limited natural defense against blue light, but children are vulnerable.
Blue light can also interfere with the body clock and affect sleep. Protecting children from the adverse impacts of electronic displays is crucial. If your child complains of burning eyes, you should check the amount of time they spend with the devices.
