The influence of gadgets on visual perception. The influence of gadgets on the vision of schoolchildren

Today, technological progress contributes to the widespread problems with vision. Smartphones, tablets and other gadgets, despite various measures taken to improve their safety, continue to have a rather negative impact on people’s vision. Children especially suffer, as often happens. Can modern gadgets lead to blindness and how do they affect the development of eye cancer, AiF.ru told Daria Baryshnikova, ophthalmologist, member of the Association of Interdisciplinary Medicine.

Dangerous radiation

It is believed that modern gadgets seriously damage vision. And they especially blame radiation from screens for this. In fact, not a single modern gadget exceeds the norm for electromagnetic radiation, and in this sense does not pose any danger to vision. But there are a number of factors that you need to pay attention to in order to maintain the sharpness of your vision for yourself and your children. This is the size and quality of the device’s screen and the conditions under which it is used.

The less and worse screen, the more you have to strain your eyes. Therefore, for example, a TV is better than a tablet. You can’t look at a bright screen for a long time while in a dark room. It is better not to read from the screen and do not let children watch cartoons in conditions of strong shaking. It is necessary to correctly adjust the brightness of the device screen: if you use full brightness outdoors, when entering a room, reduce it by 2/3. When giving your child a smartphone or tablet, it is better to sit him at a table or put the gadget on a stand so that the distance from the child’s eyes to the screen does not change. All these recommendations are designed to relieve excessive stress on the eye muscles and are a preventive measure against a decrease in visual acuity.

It is incorrect to say that the use of gadgets leads to blindness. It is believed that intense exposure of children's eyes to blue light can damage the retina and cause premature macular degeneration, which is a common cause of cataracts and blindness in people over 50 years of age. This risk is much lower in an adult, since with age the lens of the eye turns slightly yellow, which blocks some of the blue light. Research on this topic is still underway and requires confirmation. The best way Protect your child’s eyes by limiting the time of “communication” with the gadget.

We must remember that long-term continuous “communication” with any modern device causes dry eye syndrome. Looking at a bright screen, we blink 2-3 times less often, which means we do not sufficiently moisturize our eyes. In turn, dry eyes can lead to the development of eye inflammation.

Modern statistics

According to official data, today in Russia about 15.5 million people suffer from eye diseases, and every second Russian has visited an ophthalmologist at least once. The most common cause of eye diseases is not smartphones and tablets at all, but infections: bacterial agents, viruses (primarily herpes) and pathogenic fungi. Any pathogen from this group can not only cause inflammatory eye disease, but also provoke the development of more serious diseases, for example, cataracts. In second place are degenerative-dystrophic age-related changes, in third place are developmental defects and eye anomalies. Various injuries, complications from them, autoimmune processes, tumors, and a number of other pathologies (hypertension, anemia, diabetes mellitus, etc.) can also affect vision. Many ophthalmologists talk about the dangers of using gadgets, but there are no statistics or proven studies on this topic.

There is an opinion that long-term use of gadgets without any breaks can lead to the development of eye cancer. At the moment, there is no reliable data to support such a theory. Research is actively underway in a number of European countries, but they have not yet proven anything.

Attention to prevention

Like any other problem, vision loss is easier to prevent than to treat. Moreover, preventive measures are not as complicated as they seem. It is worth paying attention to the size and quality of the screen (the larger the better), adjusting the lighting correctly (1/3 of full brightness is enough in the room), reading or watching videos by placing the gadget on a stand or on a table. In the dark, use gadgets only with additional lighting. Give your eyes rest every 30-40 minutes. If possible, limit the time of continuous use of gadgets.

An additional factor that, along with the use of modern devices, can provoke a deterioration in a person’s vision is an initial predisposition to a particular eye disease. This is especially true for children, for whom excessive eye strain in the presence of a congenital pathology will significantly accelerate its development. Before buying a tablet or smartphone for your child, you should take him to an appointment and examination with an ophthalmologist.

The main task of every parent is to prepare their child for real world conditions and survival. As a result, educational efforts for many years consist of training offspring, caring for their safety and health. But how do children perceive this?

Considering the topic of how gadgets affect children and their harm, it is worth highlighting several main points.

First of all, this is vision impairment. If your baby constantly looks at the monitor or screen of a mobile device, this will affect his vision. Experts say that the influence of such electronic “toys” is so strong that vision lost before the age of 10 cannot be restored. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly control the child’s presence at the computer. In addition, there are special techniques that help draw up a diagram safe use modern devices. Based on how old your child is, you can determine the acceptable amount of time in front of the monitor:

Pediatricians generally do not recommend that children aged 1 to 5 years be near a computer;
at the age of 5 to 7 years, playing on a computer or tablet for 10 minutes (maximum 20 over 24 hours) is considered safe;
Pupils of grades 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are allowed to sit with gadgets for 10-15 minutes without a break. in a day;
from 10 years of age, a child can be allowed to use devices for 20 minutes without a break, a maximum of three times during the day.

The harmful influence of gadgets on modern children also affects their sedentary lifestyle. A child who plays a lot and often on a computer or with a tablet practically does not move, which affects the spine and joints. In addition, such children have a tendency to accumulate excess weight from an early age.

Mental disorders are another side effect of excessive exposure to modern electronic technology. Although rare, such phenomena are quite possible. Mental disorders are often observed more in those children who spend time playing in front of a monitor. Games that are inappropriate for their age are especially harmful to the mental health of children. For example, those that contain scenes with elements of violence, blood, exposure to psychotropic substances, as well as scenes of an erotic nature.

In addition, every online game has an element of virtual communication. As a result, the child’s worldview changes and he becomes influenced by traveling around the world computer technology. Of course, after such exciting game episodes, it is very difficult for a child to return to the real world to his lessons and his responsibilities, and for parents it is difficult to wean their offspring from such a harmful habit.

Against the background of long-term regular communication with gadgets, the child’s ability to distinguish truth and reality from fiction deteriorates. Children transfer many actions and plots of scenes seen on the device monitor into the present, without understanding their harm and negative consequences. The behavior model is formed by children based on the actions of the heroes of the virtual world. This is the main problem of modern small users of electronic devices - they adopt the skills of characters, most of whom are selfish and aggressive individuals, guided in action only by their own desires and needs.

The harm of constant communication with gadgets is also reflected in the fact that children develop addiction. Many experts compare this addiction to alcohol and drug addiction.

However, parents may not notice this effect of the device on their child. The first suspicions begin to creep in when they attempt to wean their offspring from the electronic “toy” and replace virtuality with reality.

At the same time, there are also “advantages” of children’s communication with modern mobile devices and computer:

Possibility of comprehensive development of the child, subject to careful supervision by parents. This does not mean that from the first year of life the baby should be introduced to gadgets. He will need this skill from the age of seven. Modern schoolchildren aged 7-10 years old can turn on a laptop, computer or tablet and run on it the program necessary for learning or acquiring new knowledge. The main thing is that parents can be present with their children at this time in order to unobtrusively help and at the same time control the process.
An opportunity to keep your child occupied for a short time during a long wait. Everyone knows that children do not tolerate long lines, monotonous long journeys, waiting in clinics, etc. well. In such situations, exciting toys or paper and pencils are not always at hand. Another thing is a smartphone or tablet, which can distract the baby for 10-15 minutes. Parents can also spend this time usefully by playing an educational and educational game. This way they will be able to communicate with their children and additionally introduce them to new knowledge.

As you can see, there are also positive aspects of communicating with gadgets. However, in order to prevent children from getting used to the world of virtual travel and attempts to manipulate, it is better to control the time they spend on computer monitors and tablets.

If in your life there is a problem of a child getting used to the world of computer technology and this affects his behavior, communication, and studies, it is urgent to take safety measures. This dependence is recognized by two signs:

real life and communication with parents (relatives, friends) are relegated to the background;
There is a violent protest, hysteria, and threats when parents try to impose restrictions.

If you notice such symptoms of excessive passion for electronic toys, you should wean your child off using the following techniques:

control over the duration of the offspring’s communication with the “technologies of the future.” In order not to encounter a similar problem later, try to keep children from one year to five years away from gadgets at all;
reviewing app recommendations to ensure descriptions are appropriate for his or her age group;
do not resort to using devices unnecessarily. Don’t try to get rid of your child by pushing a tablet or iPhone into his hands; it’s better to get him interested in what he’s doing and ask for help. And do not manipulate children by promising a game as a reward for fulfilling a request.

Ophthalmologist I.N. Turco

Lately, "Oh!" I increasingly receive questions from moms and dads about the impact of TV and gadgets on children's vision. There is cause for concern: there are more and more children with various vision pathologies. But is modern technology to blame for this? About this "Oh!" I decided to ask Klavdiya Ermoshkina, a pediatric ophthalmologist at the Fantasy clinic, a specialist who works exclusively within the framework of evidence-based medicine.

Gadgets don't damage your eyesight

In vision pathology in children, it is not gadgets that play the most important role - they can be called a feature of the progress of the modern world, the main thing here is the child’s lifestyle and his genetic characteristics. Long-term work at close range is one of the factors influencing the onset and progression of myopia, but at close range a child looks not only at a phone or tablet, but also at a book or.

You will be interested to know that over the past five years, studies have appeared that say that the cause of the development of myopia in children is a lack of daylight! It slows down the growth of the eyeball in the axial direction, that is, the eye grows faster in length. Just imagine, just one extra millimeter is already myopia. Natural light regulates the growth of the eyeball in the right direction and prevents a rapid growth spurt.

You can watch TV as much as you like

From an ophthalmological point of view, at absolutely any age, even right from birth. Unlike tablets and phones, it is not so important here whether the child has myopia or not - ophthalmologists have no reason to limit TV viewing, the only “but”: we recommend that people with myopia wear glasses.

In modern ophthalmology, there are no substantiated statistics on this issue, and recommendations regarding the time a child spends in front of a screen are in most cases not based on any research data. It is generally quite difficult to substantiate the harm of TV to vision, since there is no convincing data. However, this does not negate the fact that other specialists, for their own reasons, may give other recommendations.

Also, the diagonal of the screen does not have any special significance, and even less does it not determine at what distance from the TV you need to be while watching. Ideally, any TV should be located more than three meters from the eye. And it is best to work with tablets, phones and other gadgets at a distance of a bent arm, and the recommendation applies to both adults and children. The same

You can play on a tablet or phone from birth

Just as with a television screen, the main role here is played not by age, but by the refractive index (the refractive system that reflects the eye’s ability to see). If the ophthalmologist is not alarmed by anything, and refractive indexes are within the age norm, and the child does not have myopia, then age is not a contraindication to the use of gadgets.

There are situations when we even use books and tablets specifically to stress near vision, for example, in the case of excessive farsightedness in a child. With this diagnosis, working at close range helps get rid of the extra “plus”.

Myopia can appear at any age

The ophthalmologist observes the child from the age of one month. At the first examination, we usually exclude any congenital pathology that impedes the normal development of vision. As a rule, the examination per month is very short, and the next time we wait for the patient for a year. At this age, we put drops into the eye that dilate the pupil, look at the refraction numbers and get an idea of the development of vision in the child.

If no pathologies are found either in a month or a year, this, unfortunately, does not mean that everything will continue to be fine. One of the most important factors influencing the development of myopia is heredity.

The likelihood that parents with a high degree of myopia will pass this pathology on to their child is very high, but it is still not 100%. There are perfectly healthy children whose parents are myopic. But we must take into account that myopia can also manifest itself in adulthood, and pediatric ophthalmologists observe patients only up to 18 years of age.

Gadgets should be limited only if there is a pathology

If at the next examination the ophthalmologist discovers myopia, then, as part of a set of measures to slow its progression, we recommend minimizing work at close range and in the fresh air. It would be good to spend at least an hour a day outside. Studies have been conducted to suggest that increasing walking time and exposure to natural daylight may be a treatment strategy and the best prevention for progressive myopia.

You can watch cartoons in the car, read while lying down and in the dark

This information usually shocks parents, but ophthalmologists do not prohibit watching cartoons or reading a book in the car. All this can be done, it is not harmful to the eyes. You can also play your tablet in the dark. And even lying down.

Previously, there was a different approach, but now we rely on evidence-based medicine, which is not just conclusions, but data based on independent research.

Eye exercises do not improve vision

Unfortunately, I have a few more facts that may upset you. Neither gymnastics nor hardware treatment, which is so often prescribed to children, has any proven effectiveness.

Neither blueberries nor carrots improve vision. Both are undoubtedly very tasty and healthy, but have absolutely nothing to do with the eyes.

Stereotypes about vision are very deeply ingrained in our heads; I often encounter parents who simply do not want to take the time to delve into the problem and understand how best to solve it. After all, it’s always easier to feed a child carrots and take away the tablet than to spend two hours with him outside.

Photo: TierneyMJ/NadyaEugene/Subbotina Anna/Shutterstock.com

Contrary to the well-known opinion that TV, monitors and modern gadgets have a negative impact on children’s vision, American scientists believe that the parents’ statement: “ You'll ruin your eyes sitting in front of the TV"is not true. Experts from Ohio State believe that screens do not damage children's vision. They confirmed this theory by observing children aged 6 to 11 years for 20 years. At the same time, scientists recorded how long children sat in front of a computer or TV, and also regularly checked the vision of the participants in the experiment. In the end, they found absolutely no connection. Scientists studied data from about five thousand children who used different gadgets, and their quality constantly changed as the research progressed. But for development Neither the quality of tablets and monitors, nor the distance from the eyes to the screen affected.

Scientists say that the main reason for the development of myopia in children is a violation of the curvature of the lens, which occurs during eye growth. Doctors consider staying in the fresh air to be the most effective way to prevent this phenomenon. The more a child walks, the lower the chance that his vision will become worse.

By the way, recently in the magazine “ Current Biology“an article was published about the fact that physical activity affects the quality of vision. By practicing physical activity, a person thereby provides a positive effect on the neurons of the brain, increasing their plasticity. Consequently, cognitive abilities improve.

During the study, scientists studied residual plasticity of the visual cortex in adults. For this purpose, a binocular balance test was performed. As a rule, both eyes of a person work simultaneously. If a person closes one eye for a short period of time, then that eye becomes more “strong” as the visual cortex strives to compensate for the lack of signal. Plasticity of the visual cortex can be assessed by changes in the amount of imbalance that occurs between the eyes.

A study was conducted in which 20 volunteers took the test. They did this twice. The first time we watched a movie, sitting in a chair and doing it with one eye closed. The second time, while watching the film, they performed exercises on an exercise bike. After analyzing the results, scientists determined that brain plasticity increases if a person practices physical activity.

Scientists plan to continue this research, because its results can be very important for treatment amblyopia - the so-called lazy eye syndrome».