Hidup Sehat

Don’t get me wrong: I love the touchscreen on my iPhone and my iPad. It’s smooth, it’s intuitive, and it really removes a layer of abstraction between me and the task at hand. But—and you knew a “but” was forthcoming, right?—the problem comes when it’s combined with a keyboard. 

Look, I’m a writer: I need a keyboard to work. That onscreen keyboard? Great for typing out short messages or writing notes, but it really does not cut it when you have to sit down and bang out an 800-word column. Even Apple tacitly acknowledged this fact with the iPad Pro when it announced the new Smart Keyboard. 

And therein, for me, lies the rub. Even with all that a keyboard can now do on the iPad—keyboard shortcuts, an application switcher, etc.—there’s still going to be a point when you have to reach out and touch something on the screen. Is that difficult? No, it’s probably not that much harder than reaching for the trackpad, though the trackpad does certainly require less movement, but for me I think it’s that my brain needs to switch gears. Maybe I’m getting old and stuck in my ways—maybe I’m just a stone’s throw from yelling at kids to get off my non-existent lawn—but that paradigm shift, going from the abstraction of a keyboard to the direct interaction of a touch interface always come with a bit of a hitch. 

In itself, that’s not a big deal, but when you need to do it dozens of times a day or more, well, it starts to add up.