Years of gaming/computing taking a toll on your vision?

[Xeogred]

Figured this would be fitting for the main forum, assuming a lot of you guys here have been gaming for ~20+ years or so, curious to hear thoughts on this one for people that have taken up contacts or glasses a bit later in life.

I've either got other issues going on or too much stress bogging me down, but I've been having weird blurry vision for several months this year now, if not most of this year. For the last couple of years I've been having really irritated burning sensations with my eyes, very frequently (and very often when I'm not in front of a monitor/TV or anything). I always kind of thought that was allergies, but maybe not? Been suffering onslaughts of migraines this year as well. I never see colors or spots, that sort of thing, but my focus is out of wack and things are getting blurry off and on. It's so random too, at work when I'm on lunch there's this TV I can see probably 30 feet away, sometimes I can read it, sometimes I can't at all. I've always felt like I have a harder time driving at night or in the rain than others.

The iffy thing is I've been fighting off an ear infection lately which I know can cause these kinds of things, but yeah I don't think ear infections last for months and the antibiotics seem to be fixing other things, like dizziness and balance. But the blurry vision still comes and goes every day, just like it has been for awhile. So I don't think it's the ear infection...

So I've been gaming heavily for like 22 years now since I was 3, and have never had a desk job in front of a computer, but probably spend more time on the computer than people would at a job haha. Always had perfect vision growing up, but I'm 25 now and living in front of monitors... think it's done some damage?

So I'm getting an eye exam done on the 28th, guess I'll find out soon enough. My doctor thinks ocular migraines is a possibility or something. It's probably been ~6 years at least since they were checked during high school or something.

[alienjesus]

After I left University I needed to get glasses. Thought I had perfect vision until I got into that opticians room and realised straight away that I couldn't read the chart properly. He said it was probably down to looking at computer screens too much at Uni, making me short sighted. That's probably true, as I normally sat as good distance away playing games, but who knows, perhaps games had an influence. More likely is the amount of free time I spent staring at my laptop.

[brunoafh]

I've been heavily gaming and living in front of a computer monitor for about that long, and I would consider my vision to be very good. I haven't had an eye exam in ages, but I don't feel like I have any problems with sight yet. Makes sense that it might cause some issues though.

[dsheinem]

Couldn't it just be age?

[prfsnl_gmr]

The Victorian in me thinks that it may be something else making these young men go blind.

[s1mplehumar]

Up until 2005 I had better than average 20/15 vision. I'm sure age, gaming, and staring at monitor at work for 8+ hours a day hasn't helped matters. I experienced minor vision degradation when I came home from an 18 month tour in Iraq in 2006. I blame it on staring through thermal imaging, and that cursed green night vision color palette for extended periods of time. Contacts ftw!

[Retrogamer0001]

I have EXACTLY what you're describing, minus the headaches and ear aches. I'm 27, and have had blurred vision for about a year now. I'm also considering getting glasses very soon, before my vision gets any worse than it already is.

[isiolia]

I have poor vision, but it started degrading when I was a kid, got worse rapidly in my teens, and has slowed down since. It'd be hard to correlate to gaming/computing, since I've been in front of a computer (particularly) a lot more as an adult than when growing up.

That said, for me, eyestrain and such from using a computer for a long time was greatly alleviated by transitioning to LCD monitors from CRT.

[pierrot]

I've been playing video games for a little over 20 years now, but I needed glasses when I was about eight years old, so not really the same scenario. I wasn't really one of those kids who pressed his face up to monitors and tv screens, though, and I'm honestly not sure if I ever really had perfect vision.

I'm going to echo ds's sentiment, and say that it might just be the harsh truths of aging. I know you're still my age, and fairly young, but some things deteriorate a little more quickly than others. My dad had a similar change in his vision when he hit his 40s; He had perfect vision for most of his life, and all of a sudden was dealing with night blindness and blurry vision. Outside of Pong, Pac-man, Galaga and Sonic 2, I've never even heard tell of him playing video games.

Maybe it's just because I've had poor eyesight for most of my life, but I always find it interesting when people get so freaked out about fading vision. It happens, and if it's any consolation, you have to go a long way before your vision can't be corrected. I have astigmatism, and can barely read type print a foot from my face, but have no trouble seeing perfectly with contacts.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I think age and our development is a much larger factor in our eyesight than video games. According to some research playing games actually helps our brain with the ability to pick out small objects in the distance.

For the record I'm a bit near-sighted. I don't think there's actually been a ton of research on this has there?