Currently the biggest fashion style out there is referred to as Hipster. This style includes very tight, bright colored jeans, baggy shirts, as well as very vintage effects, like: pointy shoes of the Victorian era, laces and fringes from the ever-popular Grandma Chic style, and of course very oversized prescription eyeglasses! Before this style became so popular, contacts were much bigger in the fashion world than prescription eyeglasses. With their unfortunately negative history of being rather nerdy, glasses have always had a bit of a bad rep and therefore were often shied away from by those who needed their aid and vision-improvements! Now, while contacts are still widely used all throughout many of the generations – even including the young Hipsters – glasses are seen more than ever. The question that we have been asking ourselves lately however, is: ‘With all of these glasses taking over everyone’s faces, just how many Americans actually need vision correction??’ So, let’s see…
The Vision Council of America (VCA) determines the majority of the statistics for just about anything to do with the vision needs in America. They indicate that our vision-correction needs are bordering on about seventy-five percent right now. They state that currently, about forty-two percent of all adult men, and more than half of all women wear glasses. They also note that of the people that own both contact lenses and eyeglasses, usually the wearers use their contacts more often than their glasses. They go on to note that about thirty percent of the population is near-sighted, while about sixty percent are far sighted. This is to say that the majority of the people need help seeing things close up, rather than far away. This may ring true to you if you think in regards to your parents or grandparents always needing their reading glasses. In fact, the VCA says that of the thirty percent using distance-needs vision-correction – in which the majority of younger people who need vision-correction, need them specifically for near-sightedness – about twenty-five percent of them will eventually need far-sighted assistance as well.
Whether you actually need prescription glasses or not, buying a new pair might not be a bad idea! Since the style now urges people to wear glasses, even those with perfect vision are jumping onboard and joining the bandwagon! You can even find super cheap eyeglasses online for a fraction of the cost! Especially when you’re wearing glasses with only clear, plano lenses for fashion purposes, you don’t want to spend an arm and a leg, so checking out eyeglasses online might be your best bet! With this said however, even when you actually need a prescription, online eyeglasses usually offer you the best prices out there. Although, if you go start buying more and more pairs of glasses, how will we ever really know who truly needs vision correction and who doesn’t??
Elea Kalin is a fashion stylist – turned optical specialist. Her focus is on accessories and statement pieces – like prescription eyeglasses. She is currently working for eyeglassespro.com – the easiest way to buy glasses online, which now offers free shipping all over the US, with the code FreeShip10.