It’s Official: TVs or Smartphones Aren’t the Culprit of Your Myopia

Last Updated on 2022-10-07 , 12:52 pm

Raise your hands if you’ve heard this from your parents before: “Ah Boy / Girl, don’t sit so close to the TV! Wait you need to wear glasses!” or “Ah Boy / Girl, don’t watch TV for so long, if not you need to wear glasses when you grow up!”

Raise your hands if you still believe in that theory.

Did I see everyone raising your hands? If so, here’s one shocking revelation that’s going to change your life forever: watching TV or staring at a monitor for a long time, or sitting too near to a TV, does not contribute to your shortsightedness.

We’ve Been Misled

A study made by Ohio State University found that there is no correlation between TV and shortsightedness. The research was done in 20 years, comprising over 4,500 children (who would now have grown up to be adults).

The lead author of the study, Prof Karla Zadnik, has this to say: “Near work has been thought to be a cause of myopia, or at least a risk factor, for more than 100 years. In this large dataset from an ethnically representative sample of children, we found no association.”

But Why The Myth?

You see, the myth came about in the 1960s, when TV was just being introduced to the public.

During that time, General Electric sold television sets that emitted levels of radiations that were 100,000 times more than what was considered safe. GE immediately recalled the TVs.

However, nowadays, TVs now come with proper shielding from radiation. They’re now pretty safe for our eyes now.

Then What Caused Myopia?

So, what exactly caused short-sightedness? Here’s one interesting fact that will blow your mind, yet makes so much sense: genes.

Don’t you realize many Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese (both usually from the same ancestors, since they’re both so closely related) are short-sighted?

In fact, we can only conclude that if you’ve a kid now, and you’re a Singaporean or Malaysian Chinese, you can prepare to buy a pair of glasses for your kid when he or she is six.

Hence, don’t blame the TV anymore.

They’re innocent, so innocent that they’ve nearly become obsolete, yet people are still accusing them of making them short-sighted.

So if you’ve a child, there’s no need for you to tell him or her to ensure there’s a 30 cm distance between the eyes and the book, or to sit three metres away from the TV.

Now you’ve become smarter.

You can watch this video to know more about old wives’ tales in Singapore:

Featured Image: Chanintorn.v / Shutterstock.com