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How Staring at Screens Affects Your Eyes
The effects may not be long-term, but doctors are seeing more people with screen-related vision problems
If you glance at the news today, order groceries, or schedule a playdate for your child, chances are you’re doing it in front of a screen. Research shows that the average American adult spends up to half their waking hours on a phone or other electronic device. It’s starting to impact physical health in a few detrimental ways — including issues with the eyes.
“It’s something I see on a day-to-day basis,” says Dr. Christopher Starr, an ophthalmologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. “There are so many people who have symptoms from spending time on digital devices.”
Starr, who specializes in ocular surface disorders like dry eye disease, says screen time can affect people differently based on age, underlying health conditions, and the amount of time spent on digital devices like computers, phones, and tablets. There’s no official guideline as to how much time spent looking at screens can cause damage, but Starr says that depending on the person, too much time can result in eye fatigue, irritation, redness, headaches, blurred vision, and more — a constellation of symptoms known as Computer Vision Syndrome, or CVS. Ophthalmologists are seeing an…
