Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1998 10:59:23 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au>, Malartre <malartre@aei.ca> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Slowly going blind ;-) Message-ID: <19981003105923.O2176@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <19981003095703.46775@welearn.com.au>; from Sue Blake on Sat, Oct 03, 1998 at 09:57:03AM %2B1000 References: <361545DB.3EFDD68C@aei.ca> <19981003095703.46775@welearn.com.au>
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On Saturday, 3 October 1998 at 9:57:03 +1000, Sue Blake wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 02, 1998 at 05:30:03PM -0400, Malartre wrote:
>> I was having a really good vision has I can remember from 1 year or so.
>> Now I'm a little bit paranoic and I'm always checking how I see since I
>> am on a computer. I have the paranoiac not so fun feeling than my vision
>> is slowly decreasing.
>> Are there any study/link on how can a computer screen damage your eye?
>
> But seriously.... recently I read about something that can happen.
> People use a computer for a few hours, then get up and walk around,
> and then they can't see very well. Of course they get worried.
>
> So what's happening? While using the computer (or reading, or
> doing anything close up), they eyes get used to focusing at that
> distance. They sort of stick like that. Then when you start looking
> into the distance it takes time for the eyes to change back to their
> normal behaviour. If you are alrady a bit worried, this can be quite a
> scare, and that makes you notice the problem more.
>
> After a few minutes, the eyes readjust to normal distances and start
> working fine. I don't know whether or not there is any bad effect from
> this over a number of years (I'm not a doctor), but I do know that
> worry makes it harder to see clearly.
>
> Also consider that the eyes go through changes at different rates at
> different times of life. For example there is a period some time during
> late teens/early twenties when short-sighted people will notice much
> more rapid deterioration, and another around the early 40s where most
> people, particularly long sighted people, notice another wave of
> deterioration. The eyesight remains relatively constant in between, so
> it's easy to become more anxious than necessary if you're not aware of
> these natural age-related changes.
>
> Anyway, the easiest thing to do is go get your eyes checked out.
> You'll get some proper advice, correction if necessary, and a clear
> conscience.
Good advice.
To Malatre's original question: take a look at my web page. I've
carefully hidden my glasses for the picture, but I need them for the
screen. What you will see is that the screens are high-resolution:
the left one is 1280x1024, the right one is 1600x1200. I use a 6x13
font, which allows me to display about 85 lines on a screen, and I
have no difficulty reading the characters (the limit is more the
monitor than my eyes).
I've been using terminals and monitors for many hours a day since they
first became popular in the late 70s. Since then, my eyes have
deteriorated. So have the eyes of my contemporaries who don't use
computers. As Sue points out, it's normal enough.
The first terminal I used was a Lear Siegler ADM-2 ("American Dream
Machine"). It had a white display, whereas the screens on the IBM
3276 elsewhere in the department were green. The worker's
representative (German "Betriebsrat") people came along and assured us
that studies had shown that white terminal screens were bad for your
eyes, and promised us 3270s. When I told them that we were not
suffering any eyestrain, and that we did on the few occasions when we
used 3270s (in those days they couldn't transfer data and display at
the same time, so they kept blinking), they said "What's wrong with
you, we're on your side".
The moral: lots of people will tell you about the dangers of using
computers. People once said that railways would never catch on,
because above 30 mph people wouldn't be able to breathe.
Greg
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