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Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works

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Anon uses a phone book (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 months ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works

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[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 107 points 2 months ago (37 children)

This was a unique point in time when people had cell phones but had to carry a phonebook because there was no mobile internet. Some time between 1992 and 2005?

[–] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (8 children)

I remember in 2005, pulling over and calling my sister for directions on my flip phone because I got lost.

I didn't get mobile internet until like 2010. Not because I couldn't, but because it was wildly expensive for a bad experience, since "mobile-friendly" was non-existent.

This was also during the era when Google Maps was a brand new website, not a app. I think I was still MapQuesting.

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

since “mobile-friendly” was non-existent.

And now everything is mobile-first.

WIsh we could go back to the time where mobile-friendly was a thing, but using a desktop browser was a valid option too.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What sites are you having issues with on a desktop? I find pretty much everything is desktop first, and most are mobile-friendly. But maybe it's the sites we visit.

[–] FozzyOsbourne@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Every website that's mainly for displaying text (think into pages, blogs, Q&A) assumes your browser window is portrait like a phone screen. If I have widened my window I want the text to reach the edges, not float in a central column with masses of useless whitespace either side.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That has nothing to do with phones and everything to do with readability. It turns out, people have trouble reading overly long lines of text, so website developers tend to limit text to a certain width. It's also a little bit of carryover to pre-responsive design when websites had to work well on 800x600 desktop screens, as well as 1080p screens, but that hasn't really been a thing for many years now.

I like the second answer here:

I agree with the user Jared Farrish: it's to make the content more readable. If a paragraph spans the entire width of the browser window, it can be taxing on the eye to move from the end of one line to the start of the next line if the paragraph takes up many pixels in width. Many websites tend to limit the width of the page for this reason. In addition, some Web sites use media queries to change the font size if the user's browser window width is very large.

[–] FozzyOsbourne@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Well I disagree, because I find having to scroll up and down more often makes it less readable, and if I wanted it to be thin I'd make the browser window thin. Return to 90s websites where the site just gives you the info and how to display it is left entirely to the browser and the user.

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