Glasses and contacts: a necessity for many people. Whether it’s for reading, driving, or simply seeing in general, glasses and contacts are an important tool. However, just because they are tools, doesn’t mean they can’t be annoying or hard to handle. For example, when wearing glasses, they tend to get dirty, scratched, or fogged up, making them hard to see out of. When one wears contacts, without the proper case and sterile water they can cause infection in the eyes, inflammation, discomfort, and dryness. There are things like eye correction surgeries, which would remove the need for both contacts and glasses as a whole.
Glasses aren’t always the best when it comes to having to do things like playing sports, which can cause them to break and if they break, the glass from the lens is dangerous, or they bend the temples (the legs of the glasses), making the fit loose and harder for them to grip your head. And while contacts are always a choice, they make it easier for things like dust, hairs/furs, ect. to get stuck in your eye, and in order to properly remove it, you have to take them out, which can cause the lens to rip if not taken out carefully. Both can also be lost easily if you tend to forget things. Glasses or contacts might not be something you want to deal with, which is why there is such a thing as an eye correction surgery, they can be rather scary when they point a giant laser into your eye.
Many things can cause someone to require glasses or contacts: reading in the dark, not using proper eye protection, or an uncontrollable thing, like genetics, can cause the need for glasses or contacts. However, they do come with a list of negative side effects, which include: headaches, eye dryness, eye straining, distorted/stained vision, and the degradation of peripheral vision.
Karalee Harker, a junior at Pahrump Valley High School, had a rather strong opinion on glasses, while she only has to wear them during work and when she drives. When asked about her glasses, she said, “Not great… Glasses, when you get them, you have to find the perfect shape for your face, and when you wear them, they get dirty, scratched, and break too easily, and when they do, you can see the dirt and smears and it’s gross. Plus, you have to clean them a lot.” While she has never tried contacts, Harker said she would never end up doing so as, “That’s how you end up with crazy eye infections, so much could go wrong with contacts, it’s horrible.” It was clear she isn’t fond of needing to wear them.
Next, let’s talk about the other side: contacts. Tamsyn Long-Yanez, a Freshmen at PVHS, talked about her experience with contacts, she wears them all the time, relying on them to see, to which she said, “I like both glasses and contacts, but I prefer contacts as they fit my face better than glasses and are easier to transport. But, there are points in time where they do dry out inside your eye and you have to fish them out and it hurts. When I wore glasses, the most annoying thing I had to deal with when wearing them was when I got sweaty and they slipped off my face.” While Long-Yanez prefers contacts, she doesn’t hate glasses, more so how easily they fall off.
Of course, not everyone with glasses has a hard time. People with glasses do enjoy theirs, too. like Asher Thompson, a Freshmen at PVHS, who, when asked about his glasses, said, “I actually don’t mind them. I like my glasses! they’re just a little scratched up, and I’m planning on getting a new pair soon. I do want to try contacts, but I’m afraid I’ll lose them, and I won’t have my glasses around, so I won’t be able to see. I am farsided and can’t see anything. I think the most annoying thing about glasses is they get scratched up and put on every morning, which is a hassle, but you get used to it eventually.” Thompson said he would get an eye corrective surgery, and that he was actually excited to end up getting one.
It could be that younger people find their glasses to be a hassle. Now for a teacher’s opinion on needing glasses, Mrs. Hoffmen, a Biology teacher at PVHS: “I wear glasses. I have tried contacts before and it was bad. I really wanted to switch to contacts so I went to the eye doctor and they gave me the whole list of instructions and I took my trial pair home. They ended up getting stuck in my eye, and I struggled in front of my mirror for 90 minutes trying to get them out. I concluded they weren’t for me. When I was growing up, I always wanted glasses. My mother had them, and when I would go to the eye doctor and they would tell me I didn’t need them, I would be upset. When I got to college one semester, my vision just gave up and I ended up needing them, and when I finally got them I was like, ‘wow this is better than I thought!.’ I think the most annoying part about having to wear them is having to clean them, and when the screws end up getting loose and I have to tighten them.”
Glasses can be quite the hassle to have to wear, contacts too, but it’s not always bad. They’re an essential tool for many people. They make people happy, they make people upset, both sides of the story have their own pros and cons. Contacts can be trouble to deal with, but so can glasses, so respect those who have to wear them, stop picking them up by the lens, don’t take them off of people’s faces to try them on, and stop bending the frames. Be kind to your glasses and contacts, and they will return the favor.
