Why Everyone Will Need Glasses One Day
It's a warm, dry August afternoon on a Saturday in the Hunter Woods development in Williamstown, South Jersey. As I ran at a pace slow enough to be classified as walking, I noticed that no one was outside. Kids are off from school, but I don't see one middle schooler shooting hoops in the street in front of one of those portable basketball nets. There are no younger kids, perhaps learning to ride a bike, playing soccer, or doing handstands on the front lawn.
Too often, the suburbs are built for more inside activities. Parents like to encourage their children to go outside and play, but the outside represents danger in the suburbs. Therefore, all outside activities are usually carefully scrutinized.
While not as insulated and protected as in the suburbs, children in cities often find indoor activities more enticing. When I grew up in the city, we played tag, hide-and-seek, capture the flag, and stick ball. Now, kids can play video games inside that approximate and even exceed the thrill of playing the actual games.
Even if kids could roam outside, it's clear they really don't want to. The inside has so more inviting activities – video games, making TikTok videos, cyberbullying girls not in your clique, boys watching porn on their laptops, and parent-organized play dates.
Is there a downside to all protective cocooning?
Can you see it? The drawback to all this adolescent monkish behavior is terrible eyesight. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 40 percent of the U.S. population needs glasses. WHO estimates suggest that one-third of the world's population will be nearsighted by the decade's end.
In China, almost 90 percent of teenagers and young adults are nearsighted (compared to 10 to 20 percent 60 years ago), and it's no coincidence that the average 15-year-old in Shanghai spends 14 hours per week doing homework.
The only positive thing about that news about China is that perhaps they won't be able to see Taiwan when they finally decide to attack. Or we could launch a sneak attack because the Chinese will not be able to see us.
An estimated 45 million people in the U.S. wear contact lenses. Two-thirds of contact lens wearers are female, and the average age of contact lens wearers worldwide is 31.
Myopia can usually be treated easily with glasses, contact lenses, or surgery, but even still, nearsighted people are at a higher risk for glaucoma, retinal detachment, and cataracts.
The condition's sheer pervasiveness has made researchers wonder about its cause. Now, scientists think they have a good understanding of why the condition has become more common: young people are spending too much time indoors, according to a report published last year in Nature.
Studies among twins in the 1960s showed researchers that DNA influences nearsightedness. But information from as far back as 400 years ago indicated that genes weren't the whole story. In fact, astronomer Johannes Kepler thought his own poor vision stemmed from keeping his nose in a book for so many years. Kepler is famous for his three laws of planetary motion, a new and improved telescope, and his discovery that images are projected inverted and then reversed by the lens of the human eye.
Recent research has corroborated Kepler's hypothesis: the rise in myopia syncs up with a stronger emphasis on education, especially in East Asia.
Last year, German researchers found that students who attended more years in school had a much higher rate of myopia than did their less academic peers.
Myopia experts have yet to reach a consensus about how to slow the rising tide of nearsightedness. However, one Australian researcher found that kids could maintain healthy vision by spending three hours per day in light of 10,000 lux or more — the same amount of light a person would see wearing sunglasses on a bright day.
Many researchers agree that kids who spend more time outside will maintain good vision for much longer, plus physical activity could stave off obesity and improve mood.
This research has sparked a number of East Asian countries to start public health campaigns designed to get kids outside.
Skeptics wonder if this apocalyptic vision of lack of vision is a secret project by Luxottica, the Italian eyewear company that controls 80 percent of the eyeglasses market. Conspiracy theorists wonder if “Big spectacles” is behind all this. Ironically, with humans around the world seeing less of the world, there was a growing trend that thankfully peaked around 2020, where people who didn’t wear glasses wore glasses as a fashion statement.
Glasses are no longer a symbol of professionalism or geekiness. it’s altogether a different story now as compared to decades ago, when people – mostly kids -- who wore glasses were called “four eyes.” Like any other elegant piece of jewelry, even eyeglasses are seen flaunted at fancy restaurants, special events like weddings, or even first dates.
According to Susan Krauss Whitbourne, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, wearing has proven to offer many social and economic benefits.
Whitbourne asserts that “there are six shared social cues wearing glasses may provide, including honesty, trustworthiness, intelligence, higher social class, and lower threat levels.”
How many times has a movie or TV producer thrown glasses on an actor in a role – professor, doctor, mad scientist, super hot female executive – to convey intelligence?
What will happen in the future if the collective vision of humanity continues to degrade? First, if there is a zombie apocalypse without glasses or contact lenses, many humans will be vulnerable to these brain-eating monsters. Or are they also afflicted with poor vision? Have backups.
Second, immediately invest in companies that make contact lenses and eyeglasses and health care firms that perform eye correction surgery. Or become an optician. Third, be very afraid if an ex-president who’s too vain to wear reading glasses is re-elected and then signs a document he thinks says “nuclear no more” but actually says “nuclear war.”