Stop Reading on the Internet
June 9, 2008 · Print This Article
A few weeks ago, my eyes started bothering me when reading things on the computer. I think they were just tired, because they seem fine now. However I did make one small change that has proved useful. I’ve tried to stop reading news on the Internet. I subscribed to the Wall Street Journal and it comes every day with more news than I care to read. If I catch myself starting to go to a news site on the internet, I stop and pick up the newspaper. I’ve found that this reduces the amount of time I spend reading news and the quality of what I’m reading is usually higher.
…think they were just tired…
Yeah, that’s what I thought too. However, I’d just turned 40, and within
6 months, I needed reading glasses. Dang it.
I’m sorry but I have to respectively disagree. I understand it from a productivity point of view, but thats not just constrained to news, that’s any reading of any article on the Internet.
You have now restricted yourself to maybe one or two sources of mainstream news, instead of the wide range of information available on the Internet.
@Joy – Well after not using the computer for a week they seem fine. I’m trying to be careful though. The odd things is that they seem fine for everything other than the computer screen. I’m curious if the new LED monitors would be more comfortable on my eyes.
@Andrew – That is a good point. Fortunately most of the news I’m reading is more factual than opinion based. I like to watch for new product releases, the financial markets, and stuff like that. If I’m looking for commentary about the elections I tend to use http://blogsearch.google.com to try to get more of a grassroots feel. But that is usually a very very small fraction of the reading I do.
I can’t say that i agree with this either. My husband and I cancelled our Dallas Morning News subscription recently because we realized that online news is more timely and more thorough. From an environmental perspective, you don’t have the mountain of recycling to deal with. On top of that, most newspapers (DMN in particular) are overloaded with ads, so your content-to-ad ratio is very low– it’s much more efficient to scan headlines using a news aggregate like Google Reader, and read only the articles that interest you.
In a way, using Google Reader is like using Tivo– it lets you skip all the ads, and jump right to the things you are interested in, with the result that you get a lot more content in less time.
Also, I find it more informative to read about the same piece of news as represented by several different news sources, as you tend to get a more balanced view overall.
If you’re suffering from eye strain from looking at your computer, maybe you should look at other alternatives like changing your font size, changing Cleartype settings, changing your monitor’s refresh rate, reducing the contrast on your monitor, or some of these tips: http://www.art.eonworks.com/archive/2007/how-to-reduce-eye-strain_20070731.html.
And don’t forget Leonardo’s tip for maintaining eye health: at least once an hour, focus on something as far in the distance as you can. Too much close-up focusing is hard on your eyes whether you’re reading a newspaper or a computer screen.
@Amy – Thanks for your input. I’ve tried changing font size, getting reading glasses, etc. I use a flat panel monitor so the refresh rate isn’t an issue. For some reason paper doesn’t bother my eyes (regardless of how small the print), but the computer screen does if I spend hours reading in addition to my regular computer work.
I’ll try lowering the contrast as that is a new idea for me.
Regarding scanning headlines, the WSJ has a column on the front page that lets you do just that, so it is pretty efficient to read.