Is human eyesight getting worse?

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Is it getting worse do to the modern life style of looking at things close such as cell phones, text messaging etc. rather than hunting for animals? I've heard the theory the evolution is making human eyesight get worse due to the modern way of living.

I would say that eyesight's getting worse due to the fact that having good eyesight isn't too important for survival - let me explain:

If a young cat was born with poor eyesight and can't see the mouse, he doesn't eat, and won't reach sexual maturity to pass on his poor eyesight ( usually the eye shape, or lens shape, or both). If a young cat can't see the dog coming for it, the cat won't live long enough to pass on its poor eyesight. and a cat with bad eyesight might not see that cute kitty two blocks away...

In other words, in nature, the 'best fit' individuals tend to be the most successful, (most of the time). In humans, unfit people use technology to make them 'more fit', and 'unfit' people reproduce as much as 'fit' ones do...not to mantion, things like "plumage" (clothing, makeup, surgery, etc) and $$$ make the unfit appear fit... and also, physically unfit specimins might be able to spawn because they are 'witty'...and don't forget, alchohol makes unfit people fit...

You're probably not going to pass on poor eyesight to your kids if you and yer spouse have 'fit' eyeball genes, traits usually aren't passed on that way, but I believe that genes do have an inherint amount of plasticity in their expression to better suit an individual to its souroundings...

As for screens, it's a good idea to stare at things at different distances to keep yer eye muscles(the ones that are used to focus your eyes) in good shape.

One thing overlooked by most web and software developers is that many people's eye sight deteriorates at middle age. I'm 48 now and need reading glasses to use a computer. However, spectacles are not necessarily a magic bullet. At least with Firefox (and possibly i.e.?) I can tell it to use a slightly larger font size as the minimum size for all web sites. WP works fine like this, however, it is surprising how many major websites become badly distorted or completely wrecked and unusable with such a tweak. Obviously they don't give a damn if it is only young people with perfect sight who can use their sites.