The risk of Dry Eye Disease and Smartphones.

A condition known as Dry Eye Disease appears to have moved age-groups from the elderly to children.
As a pediatric condition it is even claimed to be under-diagnosed, and might account for misdiagnosed allergies or other conditions.

The disease is caused by a lack of blinking, or incomplete blinks, and while all computer monitors might be to blame (as well as affecting more under-researched age-groups) the topic in recent studies mainly concerns children.

Will we be having a myopic or even blind generation in ten years' time, or this this alarmist?

www.netnanny.com...

medicalxpress.com...

www.sciencebasedhealth.com...

Do computers put out a form of radiation?

a reply to: halfoldman

Your talk of blind generations is alarmist, I didn't see that in the source.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04
It's a question to further conversation.

Is it alarmist? I don't know.
Clearly it's a cause for concern.
How degenerative or treatable it is in the young - does anybody know (considering it was erstwhile a disease of the elderly)?
Perhaps only time will tell.
But thanks for your opinion.

a reply to: halfoldman

Usually questions are based on content from the sources.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: halfoldman

Your talk of blind generations is alarmist, I didn't see that in the source.

In all fairness, it was merely a hypothetical question.

Not having read OP's links, it's an OP and a follow-up question that makes one wonder, well, myself at least anyway.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

Why would you wonder about that when literally nothing in the sources give any indication about that happening?

It would be like a source talking about increases in male balding and you wonder if we will all freeze to death. It makes no sense.

Dry eye disease is not blindness and only in extreme rare cases is vision actually impaired.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

How do you know that for sure, considering it's the first generation exposed to smartphones, and the effects could indeed be degenerative?

We're not the first generation to go bald, and we know the event of freezing to death is highly unlikely.

What does Dry Eye Disease mean long term?
Surely we can make deductive speculation either way.
Either way, it's clearly raising concern.

I regard it more as similar to fears about diet and obesity and once "middle" or "old-age" diseases becoming youngster diseases, and that did happen.
Or even fears about disease and tobacco smoking which were raised long before they were proven.

For now people can take the sources and decide for themselves (and their families), as long as they're aware.

This article says, as far as we know Dry Eye Syndrome today, it doesn't cause loss of vision, but:

Although rare, any damage to the front of the eye may threaten some sight.

www.fightingblindness.ie...

Take your pick, but talking now about a condition that already effects children as young as ten, due to a habitual smartphone habit that's unprecedented in human history, and it is unlikely to decrease soon.
Cumulative effects may be very different in the young than what the disease has meant until now.
Time will tell for sure.

originally posted by: musicismagic
Do computers put out a form of radiation?

The bright blue light from the LCD screens is thought to be harmful at night. French doctors say it is essential to get sleep between 10pm and 2am in order to avoid declining vision later in life.

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: musicismagic
Do computers put out a form of radiation?

The bright blue light from the LCD screens is thought to be harmful at night. French doctors say it is essential to get sleep between 10pm and 2am in order to avoid declining vision later in life.

i hope there wrong really really hope there wrong

a reply to: halfoldman

Forget about dry eyes, In 20 years there will be an entire generation with hearing loss. It is already happening.
I was always super careful with volume in my younger days and now I'm the only one that seems to be able to hear anything normal!

originally posted by: markovian

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: musicismagic
Do computers put out a form of radiation?

The bright blue light from the LCD screens is thought to be harmful at night. French doctors say it is essential to get sleep between 10pm and 2am in order to avoid declining vision later in life.

i hope there wrong really really hope there wrong

It's true. The way the human eye works is that different wavelengths of light travel further into the retina based on energy; red light travels the least distance, blue light travels the greatest distance. So the red cones are at the top of the retina just underneath the blood vessels, while the blue cones are at the back of the retina; having blood vessels at the top of the retina helps absorb infra-red heat. Fortunately, there are color modes that disable or reduce the blue light from mobile devices.

www.allaboutvision.com...

Dry eye disease?! Really?!?!
Go see your Dr., Get a prescription for.....

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

As I said, I didn't read OP's links, I was just briefly passing through on a smoke break, I just thought it an interesting hypothesis.

As a father of three who all have laptops, IPads etc., the extra *potential* for harm tends to grab my attention.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

Yes, if they have eye problems less time on a screen could definitely help.