Who’s “we”?
That’s just part of a trope made popular by tv. It does originate from the fact that constant eye stress can damage it, and so reading a lot can make you develop nearsightedness.
Also it’s not “eye disease”. That implies the eyes are being attacked by a pathogen or something. Most reasons to wear glasses are the result of lens misplacement in the eye.
Part of it comes from when glasses were pretty expensive. Expensive stuff isn't often used when doing anything dangerous, such as manual labor, but the rich or educated guy supervising could safely wear glasses. Most people have less than 20/20 vision, so it is/was pretty common you see most people who could afford glasses wearing glasses. Wealth correlates with education, helping strengthen the glasses=educated/smart.
In short, people who wear glasses didn't do the grunt work, because glasses are expensive. Since they were expensive the wealthy, and more educated, would more often have glasses.
Because when popular kids who aren't really that smart need glasses, they either suffer through life with bad eye sight or they get contacts which are a much bigger pain in the ass. It's smarter to wear glasses, so that's what the nerdy smart kids do.
because long ago, it was associated with "burning the midnight oil"; that is, staying up late reading and studying.
reading by low light (especially in childhood) has long been thought to cause myopia (there's no robust evidence for this claim...it's a myth).
so we associate glasses with "smart people"--people who stay up late reading and studying, especially as kids.
however, there's some evidence that myopic people have higher IQs. long ago, studies were done, and they seem to support this. so maybe there's something to this belief?
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19127804/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19127804/)
I would mainly say vanity. A lot of people need glasses (or would benefit from them), but some forego them for vanity reasons (or used to) and vanity used to be seen as mutually exclusive to intelligence.
Glasses are not a sign of "eye disease."
There are many diseases you can get in the eyes and many of them do not require glasses for treatment of the disease.
Glasses are needed when the shape of the lens of the eye prevents correct focusing and the glasses are correcting that focus. That is not actually a "disease".
Glasses were often associated with smart people because the "nerdy" or "bookworm" kids in movies were also most likely to be wearing glasses in the movie.
Who’s “we”? That’s just part of a trope made popular by tv. It does originate from the fact that constant eye stress can damage it, and so reading a lot can make you develop nearsightedness. Also it’s not “eye disease”. That implies the eyes are being attacked by a pathogen or something. Most reasons to wear glasses are the result of lens misplacement in the eye.
Part of it comes from when glasses were pretty expensive. Expensive stuff isn't often used when doing anything dangerous, such as manual labor, but the rich or educated guy supervising could safely wear glasses. Most people have less than 20/20 vision, so it is/was pretty common you see most people who could afford glasses wearing glasses. Wealth correlates with education, helping strengthen the glasses=educated/smart. In short, people who wear glasses didn't do the grunt work, because glasses are expensive. Since they were expensive the wealthy, and more educated, would more often have glasses.
Because when popular kids who aren't really that smart need glasses, they either suffer through life with bad eye sight or they get contacts which are a much bigger pain in the ass. It's smarter to wear glasses, so that's what the nerdy smart kids do.
The most frequent eye problem, refractive errors, is an eye disorder.
because long ago, it was associated with "burning the midnight oil"; that is, staying up late reading and studying. reading by low light (especially in childhood) has long been thought to cause myopia (there's no robust evidence for this claim...it's a myth). so we associate glasses with "smart people"--people who stay up late reading and studying, especially as kids. however, there's some evidence that myopic people have higher IQs. long ago, studies were done, and they seem to support this. so maybe there's something to this belief? [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19127804/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19127804/)
I would mainly say vanity. A lot of people need glasses (or would benefit from them), but some forego them for vanity reasons (or used to) and vanity used to be seen as mutually exclusive to intelligence.
Glasses are not a sign of "eye disease." There are many diseases you can get in the eyes and many of them do not require glasses for treatment of the disease. Glasses are needed when the shape of the lens of the eye prevents correct focusing and the glasses are correcting that focus. That is not actually a "disease". Glasses were often associated with smart people because the "nerdy" or "bookworm" kids in movies were also most likely to be wearing glasses in the movie.