I was sitting in my exam room with an adult patient when I noticed that her four year old was being entertained by a video on a cell phone. Over the last few years there has been an explosion of hand held devices with video capability. It will be interesting to see the effects of viewing such detail at such a close distance over an extended period of time. I truly believe that the incidence of nearsightedness and possibly astigmatism can only increase with this.

I could only imagine with time these devices are going to act as "pacifiers" to kids even younger than the one just mentioned.