{"id":330771,"date":"2026-08-27T03:34:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T03:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330771\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T03:34:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T03:34:59","slug":"ask-dr-universe-queens-gazette-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330771\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Dr. Universe – Queens Gazette"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Universe: Can\u00a0Sitting Too Close\u00a0To\u00a0The\u00a0TV\u00a0Ruin Your Eyesight?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014 Angel, 12, Illinois\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dear Angel,\u00a0<\/p>\n

My mom warned me about sitting too close to the TV. Many kittens (and kids) hear that.\u00a0I asked my friend Dr. Jenna DeWald if\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0dangerous.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0an eye doctor. She went to college at Washington State University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She told me watching TV up close\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0hurt our eyes. But\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a historical reason people think it might.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s no direct harm from\u00a0a TV\u00a0itself,\u201d\u00a0DeWald said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0emit anything harmful. But some TVs back in the day\u2014like in the 60s\u2014did emit some higher radiation. It was a manufacturing defect.\u201d\u00a0Those old school TVs leaked X-rays.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0the same stuff doctors use to take pictures of your bones or teeth. In small, controlled doses, X-rays are no big deal. But\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0unhealthy to absorb too many.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your body is made of atoms. Each atom has a nucleus made of protons and neutrons.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0surrounded by a cloud of electrons.\u00a0A rogue X-ray can zoom through your body and bang into atoms. It can knock some electrons out of the cloud. They fly off into nearby tissues. The remaining atoms are unstable.\u00a0That can harm your cells and DNA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fortunately, your body can fix that damage\u2014or trash the cells or bits of DNA that are too broken to repair. But\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a risk that some damage can stick around and cause problems.\u00a0So, people take X-rays seriously.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0why healthcare providers are careful when taking pictures of your bones or teeth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When people discovered those leaky TVs, they said not to sit too close. Then they repaired the TVs to block the leaks.\u00a0Today\u2019s TVs\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0use X-rays at all. But those old leaky TVs were scary\u2014and people\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0really remember why they\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0supposed to sit close. So, the warnings have stuck around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It turns out kids often sit closer to the TV because young eyes work better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKids can focus very well\u00a0with\u00a0their eyes,\u201d\u00a0DeWald said.\u00a0\u201cIf you give a kid a\u00a0tablet or a phone\u00a0or a book,\u00a0they\u2019ll\u00a0hold it\u00a0pretty close. That looks abnormal to adults\u2014but a kid\u2019s eyes can easily handle it.\u201d\u00a0That up-close focus comes from the eyeball\u2019s lens. The lens sits just behind the cornea (the part you can touch) and the colored iris. The lens is shaped like an M&M and made of clear proteins.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0super flexible. Nearby muscles squeeze and relax to adjust the lens\u2019\u00a0shape.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0how focusing works.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As people age, the lens becomes less flexible. That makes it harder for adults to focus.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0why many older adults use reading glasses.\u00a0There is some risk to using your up-close focus too much\u2014like spending tons of time using a screen or reading a book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your eyeballs will grow until your 20s. They may adapt to seeing things\u00a0close up\u00a0by growing longer. If that happens,\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0need glasses to see things far away.\u00a0The solution is to spend two hours outside every day.\u00a0\u201cWhen kids play outside, they have far-off activities to look at,\u201d\u00a0DeWald said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s really about having a good balance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

I guess giving your eyes lots of things to focus on is\u00a0spec-tacular.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sincerely,\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Universe\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ask Dr. Universe is a science-education project from Washington State University. Visit AskDrUniverse.wsu.edu to read more Q&A\u2019s, or to send in a science question of your own \u2013 or that of a kid you know \u2013 for a chance to be featured in a future Q&A. Or you can write to: Ask Dr. Universe Washington State University ITB 2013B Pullman, WA 99164\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a 1960s ad for TVs. Back then, TVs were big and boxy\u2014and sometimes looked like a wood-paneled piece of furniture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you look at something\u2014like an adorable cat. Light bounces off all the parts of the cat. The light travels to your eye and passes through your pupil. Then the lens focuses the light, so it hits the retina. That forms an upside-down image of the cat. The image is sent as an electrical signal up the optic nerve to your brain.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Universe: Can\u00a0Sitting Too Close\u00a0To\u00a0The\u00a0TV\u00a0Ruin Your Eyesight?\u00a0 \u2014 Angel, 12, Illinois\u00a0 \u00a0 Dear Angel,\u00a0 My mom warned me…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-330771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}