I have a running list of things to do in my head, most days. It isn’t the usual go to the store and pick up milk, remember to feed the cats, switch the laundry over mental to-do list; rather, I’m always trying to remember — respond to that email you got last night, reply to the blog comment from this morning, fill out that form on a real computer.
Part of why I was excited to get an iPhone was how, theoretically, I would be so much more connected! I could get emails anywhere, read blogs, newspapers, and websites, check in on Facebook, have Twitter at my fingertips… except in real life, it turns out that doing some of those things on my phone is actually incredibly annoying.
Yes, I can read emails readily, but if I have more than three sentences to type in reply, I want to sit down at my computer where my words-per-minute are a heck of a lot more than what I can manage using my thumbs and a tiny touchscreen. I read blogs all the time while I’m mobile but I have a hard time commenting — logging into websites and entering email addresses takes twice as long and it’s horrible if you run into a CAPTCHA!
Sometimes I try to participate in Twitter chats on my iPhone and it can’t keep up with a rapidly refreshing hashtag and there I sit, waiting, staring at the screen, wondering why I don’t just go to a real computer.
So my iPhone promises me immediacy — check your email! tie into your work account! log into Songza from the top of a mountain! — but then I end up repeating all of those actions, sans mountaintop, at a desktop or laptop computer later… thus meaning that I do all of that stuff at least twice, when I could just sit down in front of a bigger screen and get it all over with at once.
The scariest thing to me is that the solution seems to be get a bigger mobile device. Like, maybe if I had an iPad or an iPad mini I could still do all that stuff on the road but the screen would be big enough for me to actually read. Netbooks seem to be going the way of the dinosaur leaving tablets on top and here I am, feeling like a senior citizen who just wants a damn phone that makes sense.
Am I the only technology curmudgeon out there? Sometimes I want to install a signal jammer in my house.
I am so totally with you on this one. I am terrible for reading a FB message or email on my phone and then forgetting to respond. Once it’s been checked, it’s like it never happened. By the time I get to a computer, I forget that I have things to do, people to respond to. Ugh. I definitely love being connected, but I also HATE being connected. It’s a weird thing.
Facebook messages are the worst! It just seems so hard to type on my phone, especially because I’m a much, much faster typist on a keyboard.
I use Google Reader on my iPhone (just through the web browser), and if there’s a blog I want to comment on after I’ve read it, I just “mark as unread” so it’ll still be in my feed later. Then when I’m actually on the computer, I don’t have to re-read it but can still put in my two cents.
That said, I mainly use my iPhone for my to-do list and as a virtual notepad, and apps for various things, but I rarely actually “do work” on it other than check e-mails. It’s just too time consuming.
I use NetNewsWire for the most part… I wonder if I can mark as unread on there? It’s probably time for a new reader (even though the thought of switching it all over makes me cranky in advance).
When something comes into my phone that I feel like I absolutely HAVE to respond to, it’s always a groan and a rush to the iMac! No fun.
I am the same way, too. We have Android phones, and I didn’t really want one at first, but Ryan thought it would be a good way for me to check my email and read blogs while I’m with the boys. I still find myself reading an email or blog comment on my phone, then running to my computer to respond. It IS so much faster to type on a big keyboard, and I’m absolutely amazed by people who can blog on their phones. When I blog, I have so many tabs open, and I’m constantly going back and forth between them.
I have tried to blog on my phone maybe twice and it was a mess both times!
I have an iPad, and it is still a giant pain in my arse to reply to an email, and I think the Facebook app hates me. Pretty much any of those “make the website more accessible” apps are a waste of time. I do all of my blogging on my laptop. In fact, I don’t think it is actually possible to blog on the iPad…no scrolling (or something). I have a little phone that I use for phone-based things only (texting & calls), and I read books & listen to Podcasts on the tablet.
Wow….that was a lot of me babbling on and on about new technology. In summary, I think most of it is over-rated, and that being a tech-curmudgeon isn’t so terrible. And also, it’s less expensive!
I kinda miss the days of a phone just for texting/calls. I get really frustrated when I have to switch between 50 devices to get something done!