The Eye Strain Question
It is popular wisdom that looking at a back-lit screen for long periods causes eye fatigue, and that for this reason E-Ink is superior to LCD for e-readers. I don't think that's necessarily the case. This belief on my part has not been based on any rigorous research. Nor have the people making the eye-strain case done any rigorous research. It's all anecdotal.
But now there's an article in the New York Times [Link] that discusses the issue. Turns out, different screens (and paper, for that matter) can be better or worse depending on the circumstances under which they are used. Which shouldn't be too much of a surprise if you think about it. More significantly, the article claims that blinking and resting your eyes periodically is a more significant factor than screen type when it comes to eye fatigue.
I am pleased at this information, because it bears out my point of view that back-lit screens are not necessarily bad for your eyes. Considering how much time I spend looking at a computer screen, it would suck to be wrong about that.
February 12th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Being in the same boat as you, yeah, it would. I still worry, though.