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Does Your Phone’s Dark Mode Setting Help To Prevent Myopia?

planomaster

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April 28, 2021

• Eye Health
• Healthy living
• Myopia

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Cool, sleek, and dark – your child’s phone’s new Dark Mode may be an enticing feature, but does it really help them manage their eye health and prevent myopia from progressing?

Dark Mode – The new black.

If your child is an Apple device user and have updated to the latest iOS version, you may have realised that your device now comes with Dark Mode. Android users also have a similar function where you can enable the Android dark theme through the device’s settings. It’s the latest trend in app design, and according to Apple, it helps you “stay focused on your work”, and is “easy on the eyes”. But can it relieve eye strain and prevent myopia from progressing?

So how does (or doesn’t) Dark Mode help myopia?

It’s dark at night, and when your child switches on his/her phone, he/she is blinded by the glare from his/her phone. Switching to Dark Mode helps relieve his/her eyes of that glare, momentarily at least.

According to research, users who use Dark Mode themes with a high contrast experience more eye fatigue than those who don’t. In fact, other studies have demonstrated that the human eye naturally prefers dark text on bright backgrounds. Just imagine a picture of an object backlit against the sun, the sun flare would cause the outline of the object to blur. Blurry objects are a bad thing as the human eye typically depends on clarity to extract details. In fact, serious visual perception issues can lead to eye health risks like myopia. Therefore, Dark Mode may not be the solution to preventing myopia or any other eye health risks.

Nevertheless, if your child continuously uses his/her phone no matter in Dark Mode or not, it won’t change the fact that his/her eyes will get tired and experience Digital Eye Strain (DES). The plano app can help you manage your child’s screen time and prevent myopia from developing further. With features that help limit your child’s screen time, and detect the amount of light in their surroundings, the plano app can help develop good eye care habits in your child.