10th
Reading Long on the Web
The eyes use much of the brain’s waking energy.
My eyes are older now, and after retinal surgery in 2006, I notice that the “neural energy” required to read a display greatly exceeds that needed for a book. While there are other parameters that affect reading besides just a display’s resolution, I wonder if Shelley finds that her Kindle, with its greater resolution, “feels different” than a sparser LCD display does?
I’m sure that this is a factor in my unwillingness to “read long” on the web. If I want to read a substantial article, I print it out. That also lets me adjust font, size, character spacing; color if necessary (even Gruber’s shortest pieces hurt my eyes) — and most importantly to me — line spacing. I believe there’s an optical interference which is primarily a function of line spacing that “digs in,” based on saccadic parameters. Although I haven’t formed a measurable hypothesis.
