The Situation of Myopia In Taiwan

In recent years, more and more people in Taiwan suffer from myopia, and it’s nearly impossible to find a person who is not nearsighted. When you see a person without glasses, they often wear contact lenses most of the time. People who are not nearsighted have become really rare. Televisions, computers, stressful working environments, and lack of time for going outdoors are the four main causes for modern people to have myopia so easily.
In the past, people seldom suffer from myopia, a disease which the patients cannot see things in a long distance clearly. According to research from National Taiwan University, the older the children are, the more severely they suffer from myopia. Experts say that the population of nearsighted people is far less than that in Taiwan, and the average degree is less, too. The reasons why Taiwanese tend to have myopia more easily than foreigners are the four causes mentioned above.
Nowadays, People spend too much time watching TV or working on computers. Unlike before, people enjoy watching TV in their leisure time, making them couch-potatoes, and they don’t even care to look away from TV every an hour or so to let their eyes have some rest. Also, people are more dependent on computers while working. We use computers to calculate, catalog documents, contact with clients, and looking for information, etc, and it seems that our lives cannot do without computers now.
In today’s working environment, people are under too much pressure to take a rest when necessary. In order to catch up with deadlines and compete with co-workers, people have no choice but to sacrifice their time to take a rest, and their eyes just stick to computer screens all-day-long. According to a paper written by Chien-Jen Chen from department of public health in National Taiwan University, myopia are associated with environmental factors closely, and extreme stress may cause the myopia to become worse.
Last but not least, due to the tight schedule, overloading workload, and the exhausting bodies people have after a whole day of hard-working, people don’t have enough time to go outdoors. Or we may say, to be more precisely, people don’t have the mood and the spirits to take part in some outdoor activities. The outdoor activities can help us wash away pressure and annoying thoughts from work, and the natural colors of trees and mountains are beneficial to our eyes. Thus, besides working hard, we ought to spend more time outdoors and relax.
In conclusion, to improve the poor situation of myopia in Taiwan, we should always remember to take a rest after a while of hard-working to maintain the health of our eyes, which is nicknamed the windows of the spirits. Go outdoors more often when you have free time, and don’t say that you don’t have time. Bear in mind that nothing is more valuable than health!