Although I can't find a (reliable) cite after five minutes of Googling, I'm quite sure that there's no causal link of any kind between the amount of strain you put your eyes through on a day-to-day basis, and eventual vision loss. The reason people think this is that people who don't realize their vision already needs correction (such as children) tend to strain their eyes more, and do other things such as sitting close to the TV, to make up for their existing impairment. Thus, there's a correlation, but not a causation.
(As a side note, "masturbation will make you go blind" is, although taken less seriously, another sentiment with the same roots: people mistake the correlation of teenagers' eyes altering in correction requirements, along with an increase in masturbational frequency, as another causation.)
Well, yes and no. Many factors affect visual acuity including the shape of the eyeball (affects focal point of lens on retina), cornea (defects cause astigmatism), retinal damage like macular degeneration which leads to functional blindness, and the function of the muscles which adjust our focus within our visual range. Eye strain can take a significant toll on those muscles and eventually lead to a sometimes significant loss of visual acuity (myopia.) Fortunately the muscles can often be retrained. Search Amazon for books on vision correction and you will find a ton of books that essentially help you retrain your eye muscles to improve your visual acuity.
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Enjoy your eyes while they still work.
Although I can't find a (reliable) cite after five minutes of Googling, I'm quite sure that there's no causal link of any kind between the amount of strain you put your eyes through on a day-to-day basis, and eventual vision loss. The reason people think this is that people who don't realize their vision already needs correction (such as children) tend to strain their eyes more, and do other things such as sitting close to the TV, to make up for their existing impairment. Thus, there's a correlation, but not a causation.
(As a side note, "masturbation will make you go blind" is, although taken less seriously, another sentiment with the same roots: people mistake the correlation of teenagers' eyes altering in correction requirements, along with an increase in masturbational frequency, as another causation.)
Well, yes and no. Many factors affect visual acuity including the shape of the eyeball (affects focal point of lens on retina), cornea (defects cause astigmatism), retinal damage like macular degeneration which leads to functional blindness, and the function of the muscles which adjust our focus within our visual range. Eye strain can take a significant toll on those muscles and eventually lead to a sometimes significant loss of visual acuity (myopia.) Fortunately the muscles can often be retrained. Search Amazon for books on vision correction and you will find a ton of books that essentially help you retrain your eye muscles to improve your visual acuity.
sample book on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Relearning-See-Improve-Eyesight-Natura...
Right. By "eventual vision loss," I meant the permanent kind. It's everyone's responsibility to go stare at some mountains every once in a while :)