Today I used a computer mouse for the first time in several months. A co-worker asked me to look at something on his computer and when I reached for the mouse, I realized how unfamiliar the feeling of using one is for me.

See, back in high school I broke my right wrist snowboarding (I’m right handed by the way.) and have always had problems using a mouse for too long. Given the fact that I am in front of a computer for eight-plus hours a day, I jumped on the tablet bandwagon pretty early on.

I have a tablet that I use at home with my desktop and I also purchased a tablet that I use at work. When I’m not using my tablet at home, I am generally on my laptop, which has a trackpad.

This experience led me to ask myself if the computer mouse might be in the early stages of becoming obsolete.

I look at the touch screen technology that HP is so heavily marketing, combined with the Apple MacBook Pro multi-touch trackpads and wonder where the mouse’s place will be in the future.

I say good riddance. I don’t like ‘em. I rather use a trackpad or my stylus. It is easier on my wrist and I like the versatility of pressure sensitive drawing.

My dream, is for Apple or Wacom to come out with a hybrid tablet/trackpad that is sans stylus and I can use my fingers to move the cursor. Why not just go for touch screen, you ask? Because I don’t want to be holding my hand up chest high for 8 hours a day.

- “I’m one of a kind. I’m designer.”

Trackback URI | Comments RSS