Citing Dr. TravisMeredith, chair of ophthalmology at The University of North Carolina, apparently our mothers were all wrong, and sitting near a television or computer screen is not bad for our eyes!
Dr. Meredith believes the relative lack of blinking when we stare at these screens is more responsible for eye fatigue than the screens themselves, suggesting our habits can be adjusted somewhat.
While paper can be superior in some cases, cheap newsprint and the cheap paper in paperbacks can provide an inferior reading experience than a quality eReader.
E Ink has a very low contrast ratio. Although it can offer an excellent reading experience in bright sunlight, the screens can become uncomfortable to use in dark settings because of the lack of contrast and backlighting on the screen.
Anecdotally, I find my nook's screen slightly easier to read in low light than that of my Kindle 2. I find both far superior than a screen with a touch surface on top of it, such as the Sony Reader Daily Edition. In any case, booklights solve this problem. I also find it hard to read a book in low light, for the record.
Carl Taussig, director of HP's 'Information Surfaces Lab' says that the newer 120hz refresh rates of higher end TVs and LCD monitors are less tiring by virtue of far outweighing our eyes' ability to see changes in the image due to their increased refresh rate. I'm not sure that very many netbooks and lower end tablets take advantage of such a refresh rate, which may leave eReaders with a temporary advantage is this regard as well, not to mention the increased battery life.
All in all it will be an interesting year, as eReaders are both gaining in popularity and being assaulted by different devices, especially the iPad.
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