A paraphrase of Hayley Bondi’s article “We’re Getting More Myopic Quite Literally” (March 2, 2020).
1. More than 32% of the world’s population suffer from myopia
According to a study by the journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, by 2050, 60% of people in the world will have some form of myopia – and most of them will live in developing countries. Is society really on the verge of blindness?
Myopia usually develops in childhood – most diagnoses are made between the ages of 3 and 12. For a long time, the medical community was more or less resigned to the fact that people with this diagnosis simply wear glasses or lenses. But recent research shows that myopia contributes to the development of cataracts and glaucoma, retinal detachment and other serious diseases, some of which lead to blindness.
2. A key factor in the development of the disease is the amount of time spent on gadgets?
Actually not really. In the United States, the rise in myopia began in 1999, when smartphones and tablets were still out of the question. But children began to study more: for example, in East and South Asia, children study ten hours a day. In the US, seven hours at school, three more hours for homework. The eyes of children at an early age are not yet developed enough to read and write so much. Gadgets are just part of the big picture.
3. It looks like one way to stop the spread of the epidemic is to walk more often.
Natural light stimulates special cells in the retina of the eye that produce dopamine, which stops the growth of the eye. True, if a child has a genetic predisposition to myopia (if one or both parents have it), walking is unlikely to help.
4. Gadgets and drugs are being developed that can stop the development of myopia in children
For example, MiSight lenses, drops with a small dose of atropine, or lenses that will change the shape of the cornea of a child’s eye during sleep. But how and why some solutions work, scientists still do not fully understand.
5. This absolutely everyday topic actually puts us in front of a question about our common future.
Will humanity go blind and rely entirely on artificial intelligence? Or are we in for a dystopia where the poorer people will go blind due to lack of access to medicines, and the rich will control “seeing robots” and self-driving cars?
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