Smartphone blindness

There is no denying that modern mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, entered impetuously our everyday life, accompanying us in literally every activity. However, ophthalmologists strongly warn us against their excessive use. Focusing your gaze on a small screen for many hours leads to serious eye damage or even vision loss.

Frequent use of smartphones is certainly not favourable for maintaining healthy eyesight. Nonetheless, every day we still spend long hours in front of our phones. Ophthalmologists have called this phenomenon “smartphone blindness”. Why do these mobile devices have such destructive influence on our eyes? There is actually a number of contributing factors, which will be briefly discussed below.
 

Excessive blue light exposure proves very harmful to the eyes

One of the sources of the problem is long-term exposure to blue light emitted by smartphones. The closer to our face we keep the smartphone, the stronger the light radiation is. It causes eye fatigue, but apart from that it can be a reason for much more serious problems. Blue light damages our eyesight, leads to macular degeneration or even to blindness. In order to counteract these harmful factors we should avoid staring into our smartphones for long hours, especially in the dark. We should also remember to maintain proper distance between the phone and our face. Moreover, we can get special blue light blocking glasses or contact lenses which reflect harmful radiation and thus protect our eyes from it.

Intense concentration on the screen and the dry eye syndrome

Long-term gazing into the smartphone screen contributes to the development of other disorders. The more we focus on the small screen the less frequently we blink. Eye blinking inhibition prevents our eyes from being sufficiently moisturised. This may in turn cause the sandy feeling under the eyelids, itching or burning sensation and eye redness. The eyes which are not properly lubricated are far more prone to infections, which may even result in vision loss. To prevent such severe problems we have to remember to lubricate the eyes with special eye care products, so-called artificial tears. If the symptoms do not wear off, however, we should consult an ophthalmologist.

Intense concentration on the screen and short-sightedness

Focusing your gaze on the smartphone screen may cause an accommodative spasm which is simply fatigue of the muscles responsible for eye accommodation, i.e. for the eye’s ability to change focus from distant to near images. Every smartphone user has certainly experienced the feeling when after long-term staring into the screen they had difficulty focusing the eyesight on distant objects. Initially it appears only as a temporary symptom, yet it may develop into a permanent condition, namely short-sightedness. If this is the case, then we have three solutions: glasses, contact lenses or laser vision correction. In order to prevent such a situation we should remember to take breaks while staring into the screen and to look at distant objects for a while instead.

Excessive use of smartphones negatively affects our eyes’ health. Although mobile devices facilitate our everyday life and communication with others to a really large extent, they are definitely reached for too often – not only by adults but also adolescents and children. Unsurprisingly, vision defects are becoming civilisation-related conditions. Therefore it is recommendable to take proper care of our eye hygiene in advance so as to enjoy perfect eyesight for many years.

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