I wear glasses now. It is great. At least most. Thanks to the new perspective, I’m learning a lot. For example, that there are quite a lot of us who wear glasses.
My nine-year-old self would jump for joy and twist something again. But this young version of myself wouldn’t care, because she’d be delighted to wear glasses now. There was a phase when I really wanted it. Because my neighbors wore glasses. They were a few years older than me, probably 15 by now, more or less grown up, and above all incredibly cool and smart and beautiful. I wanted to be like her.
So I narrowed my eyes for a holiday on the Baltic Sea when I wanted to see a horse in the distance that I already knew what it looked like. I thought I could somehow convince the adults with that. It was useless. It was also quite stupid and ungrateful. I could see well then. Instead of glasses, my nine-year-old self got braces.
Drizzle with glasses clouds mood and vision
Today I am 34, have straightened teeth and recently got glasses. “You endured 16 years longer than I did,” says my mother on the phone when I tell her about the eye test. This revealed a slight myopia, in the right eye -0.75 dioptres and in the left -1.25. The fact that my eyes had gotten worse over the years had been noticeable for a long time. Only when I could only read the subway display boards up close did it become clear that something had to change.
Now I wear glasses and it’s great. If I look up from my laptop as I write this, I can make out every little branch on the tree outside my window. The chances that I’ll get on the right train, even under time pressure, have increased massively. And skin now looks impure again. Brave new old world.
But some things are also annoying. Drizzle rules, for example. It not only spoils my mood, but also my glasses. Anyway, they get dirty more often than I had hoped. kissing with glasses Difficult. wearing a mask too. But who am I telling this: I’m by no means the only one affected by this. We are quite a lot. According to the Allensbach Glasses Study from 2019, 41.1 million people aged 16 and over in Germany wear glasses. That’s two out of three adults. A significant increase over the decades. The number of people who wear glasses increases with age – over 90 percent of people aged 60 and over wear glasses – and our society is getting older.
Play outdoors in daylight for two hours
More than one in three people in their twenties already wears glasses. In young people, scientists would see a direct connection between persistent “near vision” and an increase in myopia, writes the Board of Trustees Good Vision. A lot of time on the screen or smartphone challenges the eyes in a special way.
Ludger Wollring, spokesman for the professional association of ophthalmologists in Germany, points out that short-sightedness in particular is based on inherited factors on the one hand and on the other on childhood visual experience. When children look at objects close to their eyes for a long time – on the screens of smartphones, tablets or books – this stimulates the growth of the eyeball. And an eyeball that is “too long” in relation to the refractive power of the eye is short-sighted. What helps according to Wollring: going outside. Children who play outside in daylight for at least two hours a day are better protected against developing myopia.
The glasses as an accessory
So now I’m part of the majority of people who wear glasses. According to the Allensbach Glasses Study, around 5.5 percent of people in Germany aged 16 and over wear contact lenses. Glasses are popular. The glasses as part of self-portrayal in social media. The glasses as an accessory. The optician talked about accessories several times, while I tried on various round and butterfly-shaped models and also a square one (which I quickly put away). These accessories can sometimes be expensive: the health insurance company only covers the costs for glasses in rare cases. Sometimes the employer participates. It might be worth asking about it.
Already after the first week with glasses I feel quite lost. I chose one of those round models with a transparent border that many are wearing right now. Glasses also follow trends. And I obviously one of those trends. i like my glasses I think my nine year old self would like them too.
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Source: Stern
