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NEW DELHI: Smartphones and tablets may be a fun way to kill time, connect with friends and beat stress but prolonged viewing of these devices is driving many users to the eye doctor, specially teenagers.
In one such case reported from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, an 11-year-old boy from Jammu developed near-sightedness (myopia), a condition in which the patient has difficulty in viewing things at a distance. The boy spends too much time playing games on his smartphone, say his parents.
"Normally, if one has trouble seeing objects at a distance, his near vision is also affected. But this was not the case with the 11-year-old. The boy had no problem in reading his textbooks but he could not read the text written on the blackboard. He was prescribed glasses with a minus power but that didn't help. Then he came to us," said Dr Harbansh Lal, senior consultant eye surgeon at SGRH. Tests showed that the child's vision was normal but the cilliary muscles that permit the lens to change its shape in order to focus on near or distant objects had contracted.
"The child started using computers and cellphones at the age of seven. Prolonged focus on a near object can lead to the contraction of eye muscles over a period of time. This is exactly what happened with him. The eye muscles could not relax themselves easily which made it difficult for him to see objects at a distance," Lal said.
Though the transient effect of prolonged focus on any near object - for example computers - is common, doctors have been coming across many teenagers whose eyes have suffered long-term damage because of excessive use of mobile applications.
"When we focus on a near object, both eyes converge and
