"OLED screens ruin my head 100x worse"

K-Moss

It is quite possible this person's symptoms are psychological at least to some extent because they can't tolerate "anything." However, I wanted to share this quote because there was a user on here, Jordan, claiming IPS is 100X worse for him than OLED, and he must have said that in response to this post from 5 months ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PWM_Sensitive/comments/1jkqi8o/symptoms_with_motorola_g75_5g/

The poster says:

"Does anyone else have these symptoms? OLED screens ruin my head 100x worse, for example. I can't stand them, even from far away..."

Remember how I was thinking it so odd someone was claiming IPS could be "100X" worse than OLED. Made no sense to me, and seemed like an absurd exaggeration, but here in this post we see the the same sentiment but against OLED.

The 100X is a clue there is a psychological component. The person saying something "ruins their head 100X" worse is being emotional, same as Jordan was when accusing IPS of being "100X worse than OLED" for him.

I take more seriously those able to use some screens with adequate comfort. In this case, both the poster at the Reddit link and Jordan on this forum cannot use anything but E Ink, indicating severe screen issues unlikely applicable to most others. As noted as well, there is an emotional component of note. 100X is a huge number, and both are claiming the opposite: for Jordan, IPS is "100X worse" than OLED and for the poster OLED is "100X worse" than IPS.

QuitePainful

K-Moss Someone suffering from severe enough symptoms to render them unable to use devices that are virtually essential in modern society is bound to experience significant frustration, especially if every attempt to mitigate the problem has failed. Using hyperboles in such a situation is to be expected. Concluding that it's a sign of the eye strain itself being caused by a psychological issue seems rather backwards to me.

If the discussions on eye strain related communities on the Internet have shown anything, it's that people react to displays very differently. I would be cautious of doubting someone's experiences just because they don't align with yours.

For me personally some IPS panels, especially those manufactured by BOE, have been worse than any other display I've tried.

K-Moss

QuitePainful The poster I quoted says they don't get eye symptoms from screens. It's in their head according to them. That's why they say the OLED ruins their head 100X worse than IPS. Therefore, the strain IS in this person's head.

They state about OLED: "Can't stand them, even from far away..."

For whatever reason, their brain has identified OLED as a hostile technology that must be avoided wherever possible. This is similar to an autoimmune condition or an allergy to something.

The vast majority of people are using OLED smartphones every single day with very few issues.

QuitePainful

K-Moss They are talking about symptoms like the sensation of pressure and dizziness, i.e. neurological symptoms commonly co-occurring with eye strain issues even when actual pain isn't present. They even bring up the idea of a damaged nerve possibly being the issue. I don't think they are talking about psychological issues here when they say it's all in their head.

For some people there could be a psychological component to these problems and this possibility should be explored thoroughly as well when looking for solutions. That being said, I find many people, even doctors, have a tendency to jump to attributing physiological symptoms to psychological issues if the cause of said symptoms isn't easily discernible, which seems a bit lazy, dismissive and even dangerous to me.

As another personal anecdote, I experienced the same with BOE IPS panels; they gave me severe eye strain and neurological symptoms even from several meters away. Recently I also tried Cubot Max 5, an Android smartphone with an IPS display and it caused the same effect, whereas the IPS panel on my old phone is completely symptom-free for me. I also noticed that light from the Cubot's display caused symptoms when reflected off surfaces even when I didn't see the display directly, which seems rather bizarre.

Additionally, people with these issues could have pre-existing medical conditions, nerve damage, divergent neurological functioning or any number of issues that have gone undetected and undiagnosed that could make them more susceptible to these eye strain problems than the general population. It could be that certain kinds of light cause irritation of the retina, hyperexcitability of the optic nerve or something else in these people. There has been some discussion about KSF phosphors and the waveform of the light they produce being a possible problem. There are many potential explanations for these experiences and individual differences besides psychological issues that in my opinion should be considered first if there is no correlation between the symptoms and one's mental state.