By 2050, Half of the World's Population Will Become Nearsighted

If the current global trend continues, by the year 2050, more than half of the world's population will suffer from nearsightedness. Nearsightedness is a vision condition where a person cannot see distant objects clearly, only those that are close or very close. According to Science Alert, a lack of daily natural light and long hours of staring at electronic screens have led to unprecedented growth in nearsightedness worldwide. Researchers say that if this trend continues, by 2050, five billion people will need glasses or contact lenses. Although scientists attribute one of the main causes of the sevenfold increase in nearsightedness from 2000 to 2050 and the prevalence of this trend globally to staring at computer and mobile screens, proving this is not straightforward. Between 1970 and 2000, the rate of nearsightedness doubled in the United States. This rate is even higher in some Asian countries. Recent research in South Korea shows that over 95% of teenagers suffer from nearsightedness. This rate is between 80 to 90% in China and Singapore. According to the Daily Mail, the issue of severe nearsightedness, which is almost equivalent to blindness, is also on the rise. One-fifth of nearsighted individuals suffer from severe visual impairment. Given the novelty of this global epidemic, the cause cannot be sought in natural evolutionary processes or genetics; rather, one must look for new developments in human lifestyle. While the role of electronic screens is significant, researchers state that over the past 30 years, even when computer and mobile screens were not as widespread as today, the amount of natural light received during the day in modern life has decreased. People spend almost every day in offices or inside buildings and lack access to natural light. The need for individuals to see distant objects has diminished, while all necessary needs for seeing very close objects are present at home or in the office and right in front of our eyes.