I had a co-worker who made threats against anyone whose hands came close to his screen. Even pointing at the screen was enough to get a look of death.

I can't stand fingerprints on my monitor, but I don't even notice them on my phone or tablet. Before I got my first touchscreen phone, I was pretty sure the dirty screen would drive me bonkers, but that never happened.

That's probably because phones and tablets usually have oleophobic[1] surfaces.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipophobicity

I seem to have oleophobic-proof fingerprints then. I'm constantly cleaning phone screen (swipe on jeans these days now phone is not spanking-new).

You could easily see my swipe or pin pattern from prints and smudges, even from one use, which never happened with actual keys.

The oleophobic coating does vanish with use over a period of time. That's why you wouldn't see fingerprints and such on a new device, but would on an older and well used one.

My phone screen is smudged, but it doesn't really bother me. If I spot something on my monitor, I can't get any work done until I have it cleaned off.

I am that person.

Randall?

It's usually because of fear of death, extending to the non acceptance of any decay to the objects one uses.

Same kind of people leave the plastic wrap around their remote controls (or worse, car seats).

Is it really? Is there more that I can read about this?

I have a Surface Pro with a touch screen and found it to be very useful and natural to use.

The Surface is plugged into a dock for all my heavy work, so I'm not using the screen anyway. If I am using it as a laptop for more internet-browsing related work, the touchscreen is so useful that I don't need a mouse.