There is a debate on whether smartphones should be allowed in schools. Lost in it all is the question of whether smartphones damage children's health. Dr. Sarah Cremers, a leading ophthalmologist, warned in a letter to the Wall Street Journal children were suffering more eye problems due to too much time on the screens. She wrote:
Allysia Finley gets it right in “Smartphones and the Childhood Epidemic of Myopia” (Life Science, Dec. 29). Countless parents are now confronting a crisis that barely existed a decade ago: Children, teenagers and young adults are complaining of mild eye redness, irritation and blurry vision—often the first warnings of deeper issues such as induced myopia, addiction and ADHD.
As a mother, I am concerned when I see my children on their screens for school and work. As an eye doctor, I see how it’s affecting surgical outcomes: Postoperative vision depends on tear film stability: a function that not blinking—often thanks to staring at screens—degrades. Anyone can test this. Try keeping your eyes open for 10 minutes straight and judge how well you can see. Almost weekly I now explain to iPhone-addicted patients that meibomian gland dysfunction is causing imperfect outcomes. The consequent ocular surface disease used to be an old-lady disease. Now patients are coming in before they reach their teens.
This isn’t a niche problem. It’s the predictable result of unprecedented electronic-screen exposure. Children spending more than four hours a day on phones and computers is rewiring their brains through dopamine surges that suppress blinking and sensory feedback. When you don’t blink, you don’t milk the oil, which sometimes dries up permanently, leading to chronic eye pain or vision loss. Children aren’t responding to classic dryness triggers—burning, tearing—and keep on searching for dopamine hits on their devices.
In a 2021 study published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology, my co-authors and I demonstrated that excessive screen time is strongly associated with meibomian gland atrophy in children and adolescents. The implications extend beyond eye comfort. Excessive screen use plus underlying autoimmune disease blood markers can equal disaster for future vision and chronic eye pain. Chronic ocular surface disease has also been associated with increased cognitive decline risk, raising the possibility that today’s digital youth may face tomorrow’s dementia burden at higher rates.
Parents often assume that screens are harmless because they’re ubiquitous. But ubiquity doesn’t equal safety. The combination of dopamine-driven hyperfocus, reduced blinking and prolonged near-work is reshaping the visual and neurological development of an entire generation.
But hey, don't interfere with my child's freedom.
13 comments:
Should have never been allowed in the first place.
Not to mention the destructive effect "smart" phones have on children's cognitive abilities.
But how will Precious call momma when she/he is taken out of class for fighting etc.
So are we going to stop handing out iPads in lieu of books?
In my opinion that's not the issue. Parents can control their screen time. The issue is whether phones are a problem in the school setting and whether the education of the kids would be better without that distraction. You don't have to have a PhD to know that phones don't need to be in school. There are dress codes but we can't ban phones?? Makes no sense.
I'm more in favor of stricter guidelines for phone use in schools than an outright ban. Many parents use smartphones to communicate urgent messages and to track locations. Some even use them for blood sugar readings or other medical reasons.
Use rules to enforce some obedience and accountability in students. Many are sorely lacking in that area. Let the kids have their phones but if caught using them in class or when otherwise not allowed, make them responsible. Confiscate it for the first offense. Contact the parents for the second. Something along those lines. This can be used to teach and nurture if employed well. (disclaimer: I'm GenX, we didn't have shit except passing notes and that was grounds for punishment)
The whole school model is outdated. Its a glorified baby sitting service. They should gamify all learning. Kids can read/study/quiz/test at home on mobile devices and earn time to do other things (browse, games, social media). The solution is really simple. Pass today's lesson, the device gets unlocked for an hour. Then, on to the next lesson. Kids would probably go up a grade level in half the time.
My anecdotal evidence is from my childhood. I got a gameboy for Christmas in 1990. I was glued to that tiny little crappy green and black LCD screen for two years straight. By 1992 I was getting glasses.
No way. Apple has been courting school districts since 1979. I still remember my childhood. School libraries in the 1980s had Apple II and the new Apple II GS. They even had a single Macintosh with an Apple Writer laser printer for the teachers to use. Rankin country has been spending millions of dollars on Apple products for 40 years .
Study after study shows how harmful it is, yet you see parents out all the time doing it. I guess the same could be said for processed food too...
"Children spending more than four hours a day on phones and computers is rewiring their brains through dopamine surges that suppress blinking and sensory feedback."
I'm highly curious how a generation of children who have become accustomed to multiple dopamine hits per hour are going to be able to function in jobs that require actual mental concentration, devotion to single tasks for an extended period of time, or even periods of boredom.
The data is just starting to trickle out... about this generation of "pad kids" that grew up staring at screens. Psychological damage, no attention span, impulse control... and now its their eyeballs! Send them to school where they get their own pad starting in kindergarten! Wire them up with headphones, let their little eyes glaze over in the hypnotizing glare! Its not bad for them at all!
We had an attractive and really cool librarian. A lot of teen-aged boys read a lot of books because of that lady.
Post a Comment