Hi, sorry for my bad english...
My name is Manuel, an 25 year old man from Venezuela. I discovered this forum some weeks ago, its fascinating the amount of information right here 👍🏻
Right now i am not so sure if pc/phones screens damaged my eyes or if my eyes are damaged for any other reason, but right now i cant enjoy using technology like years before.
I will try to make this post as short as possible, the thing is:
I didnt experience nothing weird with my eyes until i was like... 14 years old in 2010 (i was able to use any type of screen without problem until then)
From 2010 i started developing light sensitivity / photophobia, it wasn't a problem for me at the beginning....but then it started becoming really hard to go outside on sunny days, then since 2016 the sensitivity expanded to phones and tv screens, and i dont only mean brightness...i also cant tolerate certain colors in certain situations, like if some colors are disgusting to my brain depending of the day, also started getting eyestrain easily than before.
So since 2010 i was diagnosed with....
Photophobia (literally "photophobia" without an explanation behind)
"You have nothing... just blink more"
Dry eyes
You just need glasses (i got one....and still had eyestrain lol)
Myopia and astigmatism
ASD (Asperger in 2011..)
And more recently..in 2018...after like 4 or 5 ophthalmologists (and without counting my last psychiatrist) i was diagnosed with "Retinitis" .
I have my doubts about the last 2 (ASD and retinitis) for many reasons...including that aside from photophobia i dont any other symptom from Retinitis, then my doubts about ASD are more complex to explain and i dont want to make the post longer.
What i know for sure right now is that i am sensitive to pwm flickering, and yes...i know there are other eyestrain factors but i am 100% sure pwm is a big one for me, i had used phones with and without pwm in the past and the difference is HUGE for me (like...getting extreme headache + burning sensation after 5 minutes using an low frecuency pwm phone vs getting eyestrain after 2 hours using an pwm free phone)
But off course, now there is the "colors problem" since 2016, i dont know if it is psychological (my mood) , my brain, my retina or what....but now there are 2 scenarios when i watch an phone/tv screen (depends on the screen off course)
A) i have eyestrain quickly
B) i dont have eyestrain for a couple of hours if its pwm free...but i cant "enjoy" certain colors (its hard to explain)
Every new year is becoming more and more rare to experience the last scenario...the C) option : 0 eyestrain and 0 "color fatigue", so maybe in some years i will not be able to enjoy anything. Idk for sure.
Right now i am using an Motorola One Fusion -the standard model...not the plus one-...maybe the most eye friendly phone i ever had, its much better than my old s3 mini for example (i never liked how amoled displays looked to begin with) and much better than other lcd phones that uses pwm and gives me eyestrain, but still far from perfect....also i still dont find an phone that has "colors" i enjoy at 100%.
Right now I have to live like an vampire 😁, if go outside i get an instant "extreme" burning sensation that last for days, if i stay inside my house i cant turn the lights on because it gives me eyestrain, if i let the sun go inside the house it gets worse....etc etc. I live more hours with headaches / migraine than without them, Its pretty horrible.
I am considering changing my fusion for another phone (not because of the screen...but for the weight, my fusion weights like an stone) right now the only 2 alternatives in my city without PWM are the realme 8 5g and the realme x50 5g (but i am not too sure about the last one, even if it is much better than the 8 5g i dont like not having the 3.5 jack...)
Like i said before, i know there are other eyestrain factors (and even more in my case) but what i know for sure is that if i buy a new phone it has to be at least pwm free....i know it wont be perfect (i guess the color problem is here to stay) but i guess it wont be worst than my fusion.