KFDA - NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo News, Weather, SportsSmartphones and tablets potentially harmful to your eyes

Smartphones and tablets potentially harmful to your eyes

AMARILLO, TX - Use of smart phones and portable tablets could ruin your vision in less time than you think.

Thin and sleek iPhones and mobile tablets are the new fad.

While this type of technology can help us on-the-go, they can hurt our vision.

"If a person just lives with their electronic devices for many hours, there is going to be an adaptive process," Therapeutic Optometrist Dr. Cled Click said.

It's a process that could have the same effects as Computer Vision Syndrome.

"It's composed of several components including eye strain, dry eye and headaches," Click said. "Occasionally you can get fatigued or blurred vision and sometimes you have loss of focus."

Several doctors believe over exposure to mobile devices could make a person near-sighted.

Dr. Click says more research needs to be done before proving that claim but did offer his own opinion.

"If you do lots of close-up work, the eye tries to become efficient and tries to see there," he said. "If you hold those muscles there and if you hold those muscles in the eye at that distance for a long period of time, you can influence it."

There are a couple of steps you can take to lessen the strain on your eye.

The first is to make font size bigger when surfing the web.

"The size of font on many smart phones is adjustable," he said. "You can pinch the phone or tablet and make the font bigger."

Also, be sure to lower the brightness.

"Glare is almost more important than size of font," he said.

However, this can be easily adjusted in the system settings folder on your device.

Finally, eye exams are recommended yearly for children and twice a year for adults.