OK, this is a serious health threat, if true

It seems our children are growing up with vision problems caused by smartphones and similar electronic devices.  The New York Post reports:

More people are suffering from myopia (short-sightedness) now than 10 years ago, according to eye health expert Andrew Bastawrous, who said that the amount of time spent staring at screens might be to blame.

. . .

Eyeball growth slows down in your late teens but there is evidence that younger generations’ peepers are continuing to grow.

“The initial theory for this is that people are doing more near-plane reading activity with smartphones which is encouraging the eye to become myopic to meet that environmental need,” Bastawrous told Wired.

“There’s also evidence that suggests this is happening too quickly for it to be purely an environmental or genetic response.”

“More recent data suggests a more important factor has been that we spend less time outdoors than we used to.”

He added that in some cases like Singapore, more than 90 percent of pupils are leaving school short-sighted.

It follows warnings that British kids face a life of wearing specs because they don’t go outside enough.

. . .

Bastawrous added ... “Many people no longer spend time looking at the stars and the mountains, they’re looking at screens more often instead.”

There's more at the link.

If the rapid spread of electronic screens, large and small, is doing this, we're effectively evolving ourselves into less healthy lives.  I suspect the only answer will be to force kids to go outside every so often, whether they want to or not, to make them develop healthier viewing habits.  However, that won't help for adults - so what do we do to solve their problem?

Peter