The increased time students spend in school staring at a screen while hunching over leaves a brutal effect on eyesight and posture.
Based on a recent poll, posture is one thing negatively affecting students, 75% of whom say their posture worsened with the amount of time spent in front of technology. The most common effects include neck, back and shoulder pain. For athletes, it can increase risk of injury during games or practices — it also creates stiffness, which limits movement.
One consequence of hunching over that isn’t as known is an increase of stress on a person due to the amount of pressure applied to the abdomen, which creates heartburn and slow digestion because it forces stomach acid to go in the wrong direction.
If you look around a classroom, you notice that almost everyone sits like a shrimp, and you notice how stressed students are, which could be the effect from the pressure on the abdomen. If teachers allowed more breaks during the long class periods of looking at computers, it would benefit students greatly.
Students can also sit back in their chair and position their computer or phone, so their shoulders are relaxed rather than tense. For an athlete, the best option is getting a professional chiropractor or a massage therapist; I currently have both, and my posture has never felt better.
If posture wasn’t awful enough, just wait for eyesight. The impact it has on a person’s physical health is much more than just migraines.
In an article by Dr. Eileen West titled “Eye Health and Its Effect on Whole Body Health,” strain on the eyes can create thyroid problems, which can cause a person’s eyes to bulge out of their sockets. Additionally, strain can also develop dry eye syndrome.
I feel that it’s the teen’s and school’s fault because a teen tends to be on their phone for long periods of time, and schools have teens on their computer for most of the day.
Eyesight has a huge impact on daily activities like driving and sports. In driving, people use their eyes to see objects and avoid accidents, but if a person has horrible eyesight, they would struggle in noticing objects or other cars. This leads to car crashes that could result in injury or death.
For sports, it could lead to an increase in injury because your coordination is decreased, making it difficult to have a quick reaction time.
The main cause of eyesight problems is increased screen time. Teens are always on their phones doomscrolling and on their computers for most of the school day.
There are multiple ways to help improve eyesight. One of the obvious ways is reaching out to a professional eye doctor to have your eyes looked at, which could lead to prescription glasses. There’s also screen time reduction and blue-light-blocking glasses for devices. Also, wearing sunglasses during long periods in the sun would be helpful.
If the school cared about their students, they should consider reducing bad posture and eyesight among students.
