Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Why is it we get people saying that reading from an LCD screen hurts his/her eyes and yet some of the same people spend lots of time watching an LCD TV and sitting in front of a computer/laptop/tablet/phone all with an LCD screen for a good amount of time? If these LCD screens are not a problem, then why is reading a problem? And if these screen are a problem, then go see your local optometrist as you have something wrong with your eyes.
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I'm one of those. I watch videos on my laptop every day. I just finished watching one that was 58 minutes long. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I also read on my phone. When I had an LCD phone I was limited to 15 or 20 minutes and then my eyes began to water. No pain but it became difficult to read. If I didn't stop it would be hours before I could read again, on LCD or on my Kindle.
A few months ago I changed to a phone with an AMOLED display. That's a lot better. Now I can read up to about 30 minutes in a session before my eyes begin to water.
With either phone I can stop reading for about 5 minutes and then begin another reading session. I seem to be able to do a few of those sessions as long as I take a break. I've never tested how many I can do in a day since I mostly read with my Kindle.
I can't really tell you why this is true but for me it definitely is true. My speculation is that when reading I'm gazing straight into the screen while when browsing or watching a video I look away more. Or maybe I blink more. I don't really know the answer. I just know it's true.
I seriously wish it wasn't true. I much prefer reading on my phone to my Kindle. The size and convenience are just right for me. A few months ago I started testing this to see if I could read exclusively on the phone for a month. I ended up doing it for 2 months. During that time I found myself reading a little less but enjoying it more and reading enough faster that I got as much reading done.
That led me to an experiment on my Kindle with wide margins, which also let me read faster, so now I read as fast on my Kindle.
I read today on my phone for about half an hour, probably in 3 sessions because of real life interruptions. It's a nice way to read. I wish I could just do it that way all the time.
From discussions in this forum and others I'm pretty sure this problem doesn't affect everyone. I've heard estimates that 1/3 of readers are bothered by reading on LCD and 2/3 are not. I have no idea how real those numbers are but I guess that fact makes it easy for those who aren't bothered by LCD (or AMOLED) reading to be skeptical.
I'm the same way. At 76 I've never died so I'm becoming convinced that death is a rumor; something neurotics make up. Or maybe spread by life insurance companies.
Barry