For decades-- ever since my IBM Selectric days-- I have been quite a fast typist, and this carried easily over to the computer keyboard when I started using one around 1983.
But now, even though I spend the majority of my typing hours on my laptop, the practice of switching among the keyboards of my Blackberry, kindlefire, and laptop has really slowed me down on the computer.
It’s because stuff isn’t in the same place on the different keyboards. The letters are in the same places, but typing numbers, brackets of different kinds, even apostrophes-- the way to access them is different from one device go the next. Needing to stop and remember which thingie I’m on interrupts what used to be mindless, mechanical, automatic typing on the computer where my thoughts flowed smoothly and effortlessly from my mind out through my fingertips and onto the screen. I find myself having to stop and fumble for the square bracket, and even having to consciously stop from using the shift key to access a number. “The numbers are right there, dufus! You don’t have to shift!” This is slowing down my computer typing, not just in terms of speed, but there’s a stop-and-start quality to my two-handed typing now that is making me a little nuts.
Anyone else experiencing this?