Text Messaging and Your Eyes

Two years ago we had a file on text messaging, where the people of London were texting and running into lampposts while walking, so the city of London had to put padding around them.

One parent got a surprise bill of $17,000 in a month due to her daughter’s text messaging. At the time we suggested phone companies begin capitalizing on the sales of text messaging packages.

But in our observation, we missed a very important item: the rate of near sightedness in the U.S. increased 66% since the 1970’s. The prevalence of myopia rose 41% in a survey from 1999 to 2004. If untreated, myopia can lead to blindness. According to the National Eye Institute, the alleged cause is less outdoor time and more close-up viewing, such as text messaging.

Johnson and Johnson generated 2.5 billion in 2009 from vision products, more than double the sales of 2002.

(This bit of intelligence was sent to us by Greg Price on December 20^th 2009. We have a large group of people who send us anomalies or follow-ups to our files and that is great help. Thanks, Greg.)

I hope you take care of your myopia. And don’t walk into any lampposts.

-Jim