Phoneblogger
Brennan wrote about phoneblogging and I have thoughts! Mostly: If you took away my tablet and laptop so I had only my phone it would make no difference to my blogging or any other writing output.
I almost exclusively phoneblog. If I'm on my laptop or tablet when the mood strikes me to write then I will but I don't wait until then, or get them out deliberately.
I've written CSS on my phone and worked on my theme. I've researched, written, formatted, linked, and published so many posts entirely on my phone. Yes I use a blogging platform but that's one of the reasons I use a blogging platform rather than a static site generator or whatever. I always knew I'd be mostly writing on my phone so it was essential.
When it comes to designing this site and others I do look on the laptop. I want things to look good on both. But push comes to shove I'm choosing mobile - I used to have my navbar vertically down a left column but on mobile it just went horizontally under the title. So I changed it to more like that anyway. I'm extremely used to the disclaimer that sites will look better on desktop at certain resolutions. And that's fine! Everyone should make their site how they like.
That said, I sometimes get stuck on not-really-responsive commercial sites and I really very strongly believe all public services, government sites etc, should have low-res light versions. That's a whole other issue.
I know lots of people who, for various reasons, have a smartphone and not a laptop/desktop. That feels more common now than the other way round. As Brennan says
globally, around 2 billion people access the internet exclusively via their smartphones, representing half of mobile internet users
Some downsides:
- sometimes my keyboard gets glitchy with input boxes. That just means saving, perhaps closing the tab, and coming back
- it is easier to highlight and copy large chunks of text on a laptop. I prefer to upload fic on the laptop though I can do it on my phone if pressed
- tiny fonts I already deal with by having my font set to 125% on my phone anyway
Why do I use my phone so much? I don't really think of it as a phone. It's just my tiny computer. I like to read anywhere - tiny computer. I like to write everywhere - tiny computer. I can't sit on the field with my laptop to write a blog post. I like to write when I get the mood and the idea. Plus, I'm just used to it.
The keyboard on my screen has lots of advantages over a separate physical keyboard. It does gestures. It autocorrects/predicts so helpfully. Accents and such are miles easier to add. Capitalisation just happens. As long as I get two letters of a character name right it will just give me the name as the prediction - diacritics and accents and all. On the laptop I have to have a Karabiner shortcut setup. My phone also knows that one character always smiles so it helpfully gives me that as the next word after her name. I am aware this is a bad sign for my writing but it makes my soppy heart happy.
Interestingly, I do think it affects my writing style. However, which way round? That I write teeny tiny scenes is such a joke in the fandom I wrote a whole chapter where every scene was exactly 250 words. The paragraphs I write here on the blog are the size of my screen. Do I write tiny scenes and paragraphs because I'm on my phone? Or, is it that being naturally a writer of tiny scenes, having a tiny screen doesn't bother me?
I'm definitely not advocating everyone do this! It works for me. I'm happy with it.
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