I have an old mechanical keyboard of sorts that I use... I am currently typing on a fairly old Packard Bell keyboard that has individual plastic switches. It is

I have an old mechanical keyboard of sorts that I use... I am currently typing on a fairly old Packard Bell keyboard that has individual plastic switches. It is not the best there is, but it works well... so that is what my normal keyboard situation is. but what interested me most was the thoughts on how using touchscreen devices really affects input patterns. I have an iPod Touch that I often use to surf the web... usually Hacker News in Opera Mini in fact. I can type fairly fast on the device as well... I have timed myself at 80wpm vs 120wpm on my normal keyboard. From time to time I have even used it to type serious things, such as a few page long history paper. It is never pleasent though. It feels like an absolute chore of utter concentration to type fast on the touchscreen keyboard. It's convinient enough to type a few short sentences here and there, but whenever I go type anything lengthy I cringe at the fact that I have to type there. I cannot imagine having something like the iPhone as my primary phone because of how much texting that I do (I chose my non-smartphone simply for having the best possible keyboard). I really do wonder how that will affect how people think of data.. if we move more and more to devices where text input just isn't as nice as on a keyboard, such as iPads and phones like the Droid X and iPhone, for our computing needs, are we going to be less likely to do serious interaction?