Last week two photos began doing the rounds on social media, which claimed to show the difference between the way someone with astigmatism views lights, compared to how someone without does.
The images feature a nighttime traffic scene, one in which the lights streaked out in bright, blurry lines and another in which the lights looked completely normal.
A Twitter account, called Unusual Facts, was the first to share the images and their tweet went viral.
More than 55,000 people liked the post and over 23,000 retweeted it.
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Alongside the pictures, they wrote: "Astigmatism is when the cornea is slightly curved rather than completely round...
"With astigmatism, light focuses on several points of the retina rather just one point. This is what people with astigmatisms vs without."
And it wasn't long before people began freaking out and thinking they needed to pay a visit to Specsavers and get their eyes tested.
One person replied: "Holy s*** I thought everyone saw the lines, when I was little I would squint to make em longer to entertain myself, thought that was normal."
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Another wrote: "Wait people can see lights normally? I thought everyone saw those lines-"
A third added: "My life is a lie".
Despite the popularity of the post, a doctor has since said that the images cannot actually be used to diagnose whether a person has astigmatism.
Dr. Samuel D. Pierce, president of the American Optometric Association told Buzzfeed News that the photos weren't a very good representation of astigmatism.
He said: "To be perfectly honest, I don't think it's the best representation of the way astigmatism looks through the eyes of someone with astigmatism.
"It did not look like astigmatism to me, and I can say that because I have astigmatism."
He added: "Yes, it's possible that someone can see blur that streams off an object, but the way that picture was created it looks more like glare of lights.
"Astigmatism is not a source of glare, it's a source of blur."
