Looks Like Home (Screens)

Sometimes there are days where “home” is a nebulous moving target, or where ever you are right now, or where ever you are together. Other days home is a screen in your pocket. A screen with a horror-inducing number of unread messages. Check out the state of our inboxes, our dating apps, whether we track water or steps or meditation, who reads or listens to what where, the backgrounds we look at a hundred times a day and more.

Alaina, Staff Writer, Austin, TX:

Alaina

Ali, Tech/Geekery Editor, New York, NY:

Ali

Archie, Cartoonist, Minneapolis, MN:

Archie

Audrey, Staff Writer, Dallas, TX:

Audrey

Beth, Contributor, UK:

Beth

Bren, Editorial Assistant, Florida:

Bren

Brittani, Huge Star, Los Angeles, CA:

Brittani

Cameron, Cartoonist, Cleveland, OH:

Cameron

Carmen, Feminism Editor, Los Angeles, CA:

Carmen

Carolyn, NSFW Editor, Los Angeles, CA:

Carolyn

Carrie, Staff Writer, Los Angeles, CA:

Carrie

Casey, Contributor, Vancouver, BC Canada

Casey

Cee, Tech Director, Portland, OR:

Cee

Crystal, HR Director, Chicago, IL

Cystal

Erin, Staff Writer, Nashville, TN:

Erin

Erin

Heather, Senior Editor, New York, NY:

Heather

Heather

Jen, Contributor, Washington DC:

Jen

Jen

Kaelyn, Staff Writer, Rochester, NY:

Kaelyn

Kaelyn

Karly, Social Media:

Karly

Kayla, Staff Writer, New York, NY:

Kayla

Laneia, Executive Editor, Phoenix, AZ:

Laneia

Laura, Staff Writer, Boston, MA:

Laura

Maree, Staff Writer, Germany:

Maree

Mey, Trans Editor, Idaho:

Mey

Molly Adams, Photographer, Los Angeles, CA:

Molly Adams

Molly, Contributor, Montana:

Molly Priddy

Nikki, Intern, Los Angeles, CA:

Nikki

Rachel, Managing Editor, Milwaukee, WI:

Rachel

Raquel, Intern, Austin, TX:

Raquel

Riese, Editor-in-Chief, Ypsilanti, MI:

Riese

S Dufrau, Contributor, Cambridge, MA:

S Dufrau

Sam, Contributor, Shreveport, LA:

Sam

Sarah, Business & Design Director, Ann Arbor, MI:

Sarah

Sinclair, Contributor, Oakland, CA:

Sinclair

Stef, Vapid Fluff Editor, New York, NY:

Stef

Valerie, Contributor, Astoria, NY:

Valerie

Yvonne, Senior Editor, Dallas, TX:

Yvonne

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!
Related:

Ryan Yates

Ryan Yates was the NSFW Editor (2013–2018) and Literary Editor for Autostraddle.com, with bylines in Nylon, Refinery29, The Toast, Bitch, The Daily Beast, Jezebel, and elsewhere. They live in Los Angeles and also on twitter and instagram.

Ryan has written 1142 articles for us.

92 Comments

  3. i vote raquel for prettiest layout, dufrau for saddest background image. we’re supposed to vote on these, right?

  4. Some of these were inspiring (Sarah, Laneia, Jen, Heather) and some of these were frankly HORRIFYING. I’m looking at anyone with more than 10 unread emails. *shudder*.

    • when carolyn was collecting home screens, i was like this is it, people are going to finally know my secret— that i have thousands of unread emails. the truth is i’m unbothered by unread emails. many noble people have pursued a zero inbox but i’m just a mere mortal trying to get by in a bullshit racist, patriarchal society. i do not have the time to delete all the things or the will power to go through all of them. so i just simply let them be. i’ve accepted it as my destiny and am no longer afraid of the inbox number. also nobody important is emailing me guys, it’s mostly pr people, autostraddle wordpress and junk mail. sometimes i will purge like 3,000 emails in one sitting and then i still have like 5,000 left so like it’s useless at this point.

    • The point is not to read all the emails, just as it’s not the point to drink every drop in a river.

      You come to it when you’re thirsty, you drink your fill, and you allow it to rush on.

      • I’m not here to judge anyone’s inbox life choices, but you can totally turn off the badge count! Maybe I’m projecting, but that number would stress me out hard.

  6. Literally now having an existential crisis as I attempt to organize my iPhone’s home screen. Thanks guys, like this week hasn’t been hard enough. :P

    • ya this made me feel a strong need to change my background image. it also made me realize it’s kinda weird that i don’t go over 11 apps per page. i’m not really sure why 11, but somehow it’s what looks right?

    • For real. I was scrolling thinking YOU MONSTERS DON’T USE FOLDERS and then I breathed a sigh of relief. There should be a dating app that let’s you swipe on homescreens instead of selfies.

      Side story: my dad refuses to use folders (his text message app is on the 4th page of apps) except for the lone “productivity” folder on the last page which contains nothing but Safari (his only browser app).

    • Same. Mine’s got icons for if I have new voicemails or texts, an icon to tell me if it’s on vibrate, ring, or silent, the time and date, and a nice peaceful picture of some clouds. That’s it! No emails! No social media! No stress!

    • Annnnnd I just read Yvonne’s comment above, “many noble people have pursued a zero inbox but i’m just a mere mortal trying to get by in a bullshit racist, patriarchal society.” Lol so yeah I’ll be over here with my foot in my mouth

      But really I’m just more astounded that that is possible, as someone who uses gmail and archives everything almost immediately.

      • it’s a really fucking good explanation. STILL THO. tho also, i may or may not have a screenshot of a friend’s (cough @jajs cough cough) home screen where she has like 20k unread emails. all of a sudden six thousand seeming like a bare few in her inbox, really.

        • i turned off that little number notification on my app because my gmail inbox is currently sitting pretty at 68,591. sure, i could use unsubscribe tools or spend 10 hours deleting everything from livingsocial and the zillion social justice orgs i subscribed to at some point in the last 15 years but better to just drink my fill and then let it rush on by, ya know?

          • I have 53,239 unread emails, you’re the first person to post who has me beat. I don’t have the little box that tells me how many, and it just doesn’t worry me. Someday when I use up all 15 GB I’ll delete tens of thousands of outdated action alerts, but until then, why give yourself another thing to stress about?

  14. Confession: I skimmed down, saw Archie’s home screen with THAT outfit as the background. That’s all the good queer news I need today before I go volunteer at an NYU alum event where people will inevitably be drinking too much and talking politics.

  19. Mey – IT’S ALL GAY STUFF.

    Raquel, your color scheme is beautiful.

    Riese, having the Longform app is so on brand for you.

    Sarah, there are so many verbs telling me to do different things and I don’t know what’s going on but I love it.

    YVONNE DOES AUTOSTRADDLE HAVE AN APP?

    General question: Can we all post screen shots of our lock screens in the Friday thread? I AM INSPIRED.

  20. I’m happy to see the most of the AS staff keep their phone with a healthy amount of charge. Good job, team!
    It drives me crazy when people take a screenshot of their homepage and they only have 11% battery remaining

  24. Kayla has inspired me to arrange all my apps in rainbow order.

    Cameron has made everyone else feel much better about the state of their inbox. Thank you, Cameron.

  26. I love everyone’s creative use of folders and labels – mine is so pedestrian by contrast. Also, how did I not realize that you can use emoji as folder names?! I even do tech support for iOS devices and I never realized this. Consider me inspired, everyone!

    Here’s mine:

    Not pictured: the literally 73 apps in folders on my second screen :p
    These are just my most important ones

  27. This was both fascinating, oddly satisfying end terrifyingly stressful at the same time.

    So many badge notifications! But also such an odd sense of revelry in noting when I have similar apps and organization as people.

    It’s such a fun look into people’s brains. And reminds me how I’m horrified by any unread notifications and yet my mother is unphazed by her thousands of unread emails

    • Yes, THIS! My home screen looks more like Sarah’s than anyone elses, but without the cute verb folder names and just regular boring folder names. But my rules for home screen organization are, no more than one screen for all apps, all non-essential apps in a folder, and NO BADGE NOTIFICATIONS EVER! As soon as this shit comes in, I clear it. I can’t stand those! And people who have more than like 5 unread emails make me anxious.

  29. Thank you for teaching that I can use emojis as title for folders. And also show how awesome you all are :D

  31. Laura, I LOVE OverDrive! It’s cool to see it (and all the other ebook/audiobook stuff) on your phone. I have library accounts from everywhere I’ve lived on there, including Boston.

  32. Mey’s has to be my favorite. *Kawaii!* And with honorable mentions for Laura and Nikki’s, both quite beautifully minimalist.

    Maybe we could see everyone’s lock screens next time? Those feel more like the “cover” images, to me, though here we do get to see the apps everyone has. ^_^

  33. reading this has made me realise i really need to clean up my phone.
    but i sadly don’t have my phone right now and i’m not getting it til tuesday and this is making me miss it :(
    i really love mey’s and also wow laneia’s is amazing and i did not realise you could label a folder with an emoji :O
    sarah and raquel’s are pretty aesthetically pleasing too!

  34. Holy wow! I looove how organized Sarah’s phone is! Those subfolders for different categories are genis ?

Comments are closed.