Health Matters: Keeping Eyes Healthy in a Digital Age

It’s no secret Americans are using technology more than ever before.

In a digital age, technology plays an important role in how we stay connected.

Unfortunately, that means most Americans spend their day staring at a screen, putting stress on the eyes.

Something eye care providers are noticing more and more.
 
 When you wake up, what’s the first thing you reach for?

For many Americans, it’s their phone.
 
“We’re using screens more than ever now,” says Essentia Health Optometrist, Dr. Alexander Moses.
 
You wake up using a phone, go to work using a computer or phone and it doesn’t end there.
 
“Well now you go home and a lot of looking for recipes playing video games different things, your recreation is on the same screen,” says Dr. Moses.
 
And eye care providers are starting to notice.
 
“Kids are coming in sooner with distance vision blur and I think a big factor with that is how often we have them looking up close,” says Dr. Moses.
 
But it’s not just kids who are affected, if you’re experiencing symptoms like headaches, eye strain and dry eyes the screen time could be getting to you too.
 
“We think these symptoms are just associated with a stressful work environment or it’s just the way things go and really there are things we can do as eye care providers to help,” says Dr. Moses.
 
He says eye care providers may need to change how they deal with their patients.
 
“We just want to get you seeing a mile away as sharp as you can when really that’s not the best prescription when you’re in a desk setting,” says Dr. Moses.
 
Moses says he also recommends patients use special lenses for their computer screens to reduce the amount of blue light emitted.

It’s a problem many eye care providers have never dealt with, which makes the future unclear.
 
“Obviously this is a newer fad so we don’t know what the long term effects are going to be,” says Dr. Moses.
 
Dr. Moses says researchers are still unsure whether this blue light physically damages the eye.

He says it’s too soon to tell but he does encourage parents to limit their kids’ screen times.