This is one that pushes your favorite ole Jakey’s buttons.

The claim that the muscles attached to the outside of your eyeball, the muscles responsible to move the eyeball around in your eye socket, somehow (and very much magically) also control focus.

They don’t.  Spoiler!

Below is the full comment in one of our forum posts, reposting it here so we can find it quickly in case it needs to be sent to somebody.

The muscle actually controlling focus is attached to the lens (which changes the focus) INSIDE the eyeball:

We also happened to touch on the curious anomaly of distance vision causing eye strain in that forum thread, hence the other details noted.

And some more commentary:

There we go.  Take it easy on them eyeballs.

Most of the “extra ocular muscles though, bro” type of nonsense originates from “Bates Method” teachers.  The people that so often know the least about eye biology or causation or how to fix things.  Don’t mean to be unkind here, just many years of hearing all the same things from all the same corners.

I have nothing against Bates in his original place in time and history, as often said.  

But today, a hundred. years later, when we actually know how the biology works we have better answers.  We also live with screen addictions and high diopters sold to us by the retail optometry mafia.  We got 99 problems, kittehz, and extra ocular muscles ain’t one.  

Cheers,

-Jake

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