study of nearly 2,000 school-age children in Taiwan<\/a>, published in June in the journal Ophthalmology, found that those who reported two or more hours of \u201ccram school\u201d (after-school or weekend prep courses typically involving close reading and studying) were more likely to be nearsighted than those who didn’t do the extra academic work.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAdditionally, staring at screens from any distance causes kids (and adults) to blink less often, which could lead to dry eye. Over time, the American Optometric Association says,\u00a0chronically dry eyes\u00a0could damage the surface of the eye and impair vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s less clear at the moment is how harmful blue light from screens may be. After a\u00a0July study in the journal Scientific Reports\u00a0suggested that it might damage the retina in ways that could lead to macular degeneration\u2014an eye disease that causes vision loss\u2014we saw a spate of frightening headlines:\u00a0\u201cSmartphones speed up blindness\u201d and \u201cScreens are killing your eyeballs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we do know is that blue-light exposure, typically just before bedtime, can affect the body\u2019s natural circadian rhythm by suppressing the hormone melatonin, making it harder\u00a0to fall asleep.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Technology and Young Ears<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Listening to music or other sounds that are too loud for too long has the potential to\u00a0harm kids\u2019 hearing\u00a0permanently, say experts. And, \u201cNoise exposure is increasingly common because of all the portable technology, whether it be your phone or your dedicated music listening device or even your computer,\u201d says Paul K. Farrell, Au.D., an associate director of ASHA Audiology practices at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 2015 report from the World Health Organization estimated that about 1.1 billion teens and young adults were at risk of hearing loss, at least partially due to high sound levels from personal audio devices such as smartphones and iPods, and from noisy rock concerts, sports venues, and nightclubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\u00a0study published in 2017 in the journal Pediatrics, however, found that hearing-loss rates in adolescents aren’t increasing drastically. In fact, they appear to be hovering around the same level they did in the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More studies might be needed to get a better handle on how noise may be harming young ears. \u201cUnfortunately there hasn\u2019t been a lot of research reported on the\u00a0risk of hearing loss\u00a0from noise exposure,” Farrell says. “But we can say there\u2019s definitely an increase in concern.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Resource:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.consumerreports.org\/children-s-health\/is-technology-harming-kids-eyes-and-ears\/<\/p>\n\n\n\nComment:<\/strong> This article talks about the potential damages on child’s vision and hearing can be causes by long screen time and high volume audio. When I think about some physical damage due to technology, the first thing that pops into my head is the impact on eyes so I wanted to post this article here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Julia CalderoneAugust 20, 2018 As kids spend more and more time tethered to gadgets\u2014watching YouTube videos on a tablet or blasting tunes through their headphones\u2014experts are worried about the potential harms these devices might be having on their vision\u00a0and hearing. Vision experts are seeing a marked increase in conditions\u00a0such as dry eye\u00a0and nearsightedness in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":6224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[276],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-wellness"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6226,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222\/revisions\/6226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}