I take my glasses OFF for viewing small things up close. One thing about being severely nearsighted - you can see really well from about 6 inches away without your glasses. Of course your window of good sight only ranges from about 5 inches to 7 inches from your face,then you need your glasses back. That's pretty decent to see a phone up close, a tablet gets harder (being larger, you have to move it around to hit the sweet spot). So badly nearsighted people probably don't have to add optics, they just take the existing ones away. But it depends on just how nearsighted you are.