Doctors warn TikTok & Instagram reels may be damaging eyes long-term

(Image Credit: AdobeStock/Koshiro K)

Ophthalmologists are warning about the potential negative impact short-form videos, like Instagram Reels and TikTok videos, could have on eye health.¹

Lalit Verma, president of the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) Congress, stressed at the conference that there is a sharp rise in patients coming in with dry eye syndrome, myopia progression, early-onset squinting, and digital eye strain, especially among the youth.

“One of our young patients, a school student, came in with constant eye discomfort and blurry vision. Upon examination, it was found that prolonged hours watching reels had drastically reduced his tear production,” said Verma.¹

Harbansh Lal, chairman of the Organizing Committee and president of the All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS), explained further, saying, “Short-form videos, by design, captivate the viewer and hold their gaze for long periods. This leads to a 50% reduction in blink rate, which causes tear evaporation and dry eye conditions.”¹

Lal also stated, “We’re not just seeing worsening eyesight but also fluctuation in lens power till the age of 30, a trend that used to stabilize at age 21 just a few decades ago.”

Partha Biswas, incoming AIOS president, described this emerging crisis as “Reel Vision Syndrome” and said that the combination of artificial lighting, fast-paced visuals, and prolonged near focus overstimulates the eyes, leading to fatigue, headaches, and potential long-term damage.

Recent estimates show that there are 1.59 billion users on TikTok² and 2 billion users on Instagram,³ of which over 726.8 million interact with reels on the platform.⁴ Meta, the owners of Instagram, stated that users spend nearly 50% of their time on the app watching reels. According to a report from 2022, users collectively spent 17.6 million hours a day watching reels. At the time, users on TikTok spent 197.8 million hours daily watching videos on the platform.⁵ Reels themselves are played over 140 billion times a day by users across both Facebook and Instagram.⁴

A recent study in NeuroImage looked at how platforms like TikTok may affect the brain in Chinese participants.⁶ Results showed that individuals with higher levels of short video addiction displayed increased brain activity in regions linked to emotional regulation and reward processing and showed structural differences in areas such as the orbitofrontal cortex and cerebellum.

The study involved 111 college students aged 17 to 30 years, all of whom were regular users of short-form video platforms like TikTok.

The overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging has been defined as “brain rot,” which Oxford Dictionary named its word of the year for 2024.⁷ The organization stated the term gained prominence as it was used to capture concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media.

Ophthalmologists are urging patients to use the 20-20-20 rule, where every 20 minutes they look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds, among other preventive measures.

“Reels may be entertaining and short-lived, but their impact on the eyes—and the brain—can be profound and long-term,” said Lal.¹

References

1. Doctors warn of 'reel-induced eye damage' as screen time crisis grows across all age groups. NRIPage. April 2, 2025. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://www.nripage.com/dallas-tx/articles/health-&-wellness/2025/04/02/doctors-warn-of-reel-induced-eye-damage-as-screen-time-crisis-grows-across-all-age-groups

2. TikTok users, stats, data & trends for 2025. Datareportal. March 12, 2025. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://datareportal.com/essential-tiktok-stats

3. Digital 2023: global overview report. Datareportal. January 26, 2023. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-global-overview-report

4. Meta reports first quarter 2024 results. News release. Meta Platforms, Inc. April 24, 2024. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_financials/2024/q1/Meta-03-31-2024-Exhibit-99-1_FINAL.pdf

5. Rodriguez S, Bobrowsky M, Horwitz J. Instagram stumbles in push to mimic TikTok, internal documents show. Wall Street Journal. September 12, 2022. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://www.wsj.com/articles/instagram-reels-tiktok-meta-facebook-documents-11662991777

6. Gao Y, Hu Y, Wang J, et al. Neuroanatomical and functional substrates of the short video addiction and its association with brain transcriptomic and cellular architecture. NeuroImage. 2025;307:121029. Accessed April 22, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121029

7. ‘Brain rot’ named Oxford Word of the Year 2024. Oxford University Press. December 2, 2024. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://corp.oup.com/news/brain-rot-named-oxford-word-of-the-year-2024/