Most of what our mothers told us about our eyes was wrong

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“Most of what our mothers told us about our eyes was wrong. Sitting close to a television, or computer screen, isn’t bad for our eyes. It’s a variety of other factors that can cause physical fatigue.”

(Dr. Travis Meredith, chair of the ophthalmology department at the University of North Carolina)

“The new LCDs don’t affect your eyes. Today’s screens update every eight milliseconds, whereas the human eye is moving at a speed between 10 and 30 milliseconds.”

(Carl Taussig, director of Hewlett-Packard’s Information Surfaces Lab)

So, what exactly causes eye strain?

When we read a series of ocular muscles jump around and can cause strain, regardless of whether we are looking at pixels or paper. “While you’re reading, your eyes make about 10,000 movements an hour. It’s important to take a step back every 20 minutes and let your eyes rest,” he said.

(Professor Alan Hedge, director of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory at Cornell University)

It’s just a single source, “Do E-Readers Cause Eye Strain?” on NYTimes, but I think it could be right. We decided that “monitors are bad” in 1980 with green phosphors. Today things should be a ‘bit’ different.