Nearsightedness is on the rise worldwide. How did that happen? Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don't miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Over the past few decades, children around the world have been diagnosed with nearsightedness at increasingly high rates. Nearsightedness, or myopia, can stabilize over time, but it doesn’t get better — meaning that myopes will rely on glasses, contact lenses, or corrective surgery to see for their entire lives. The blurriness associated with myopia is caused by eyeballs that have grown too long; in a stretched-out shape, eyes aren’t able to properly focus images onto the retina. Researchers believe that two culprits are to blame: the lack of outdoor play, and prolonged time doing up-close activities like using digital devices. In some countries — like Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea, where over 80 percent of students graduating high school are myopic — intervening the progression of myopia has become a nationwide effort. Read more about... The global prevalence of myopia: https://www.aaojournal.org/article/s0161-6420(16)00025-7/fulltext#:~:text=We%20predict%20by%202050%20there,%2C%205.7%25%E2%80%9319.4%25%5D) How time outdoors reduces myopia risk: https://bjo.bmj.com/content/104/5/593.abstract Intervention programs in Taiwan: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339125514_Increased_Time_Outdoors_Is_Followed_by_Reversal_of_The_Long-term_Trend_to_Reduced_Visual_Acuity_in_Taiwan_Primary_School_Students And intervention in Singapore: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8027142/ Make sure you never miss behind-the-scenes content in the Vox Video newsletter, sign up here: http://vox.com/video-newsletter Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com/ Support Vox's reporting with a one-time or recurring contribution: http://vox.com/contribute-now Shop the Vox merch store: http://vox.com/store Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://facebook.com/vox Follow Vox on Twitter: http://twitter.com/voxdotcom Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom