Was it from this article? He sounds like a grumpy old man.
Well, okay, let’s assume that mobile isn’t actually withering, and that it will be The Most Important Thing in the Known Universe. Let’s just forget about the fact that most people spend most of their time screwing around on their phones, playing games, Tweeting and FBing about things no one else actually cares about, and organizing their next social event (where they and all their friends will not actually socialize, but rather stare at their phones and send each other pictures of grumpy cats and “You won’t believe what happens next…” content). Yes indeed, the future is bright!
He thinks mobile is a trend, which it may or may not be. The simple fact is, a lot of sites get more mobile traffic than desktop. If that's a "trend," it's dumb as shit to ignore the trend for business and not at least make an effort for your content to be more accessible on various devices.
To start with, have you noticed that all responsive sites look the same? That’s because everybody is using the same basic type of framework to make their sites responsive.
Of course a lot of responsive sites look the same. You don't have much space to play with and express yourself. Nothing wrong with that though. You're making the content accessible to someone on their phone searching or reading or whatever and they wind up on your site.
Have you ever viewed a non-responsive web site on your smartphone? Did you notice that mobile browsers compensate for the physically small screen size? I find all web sites to be totally readable on my phone. And actually, I hate it when I get a dumbed down, content-sparse responsive site loaded. Has no one ever heard of the pinch-to-zoom feature? Does anybody really expect a web site to look good on a tiny screen?
That is so stupid. Can you read a non-responsive website on your phone? Usually. It almost always requires pinching/zooming though. What a pain in the ass compared to just getting the text in a (usually) readable font size and scrolling through the content, just like you scroll through everything else on your phone. What a stupid comment. I'll take a "dumbed down" version of a page that you can read and scroll through without hassle over the normal website where I have to pinch/zoom/pan the page just to read something.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Real people don’t do real work on tiny screens. It’s simply not practical.
No shit! Most people aren't working, they're consuming content. This is a strawman, and isn't relevant to what RWD is generally for - users casually consuming content. Not people doing their jobs. Most people have a laptop or desktop for that. I'd argue the lack of keyboard on a mobile device is more relevant to criticize regarding people working on their phones. Unless they work in the field or something and have to work on a phone, in which case they're likely to use an app or a responsive site specifically built FOR mobile users and have other limitations, too, like the tap keyboard.
Also, there are certain situations where a responsive design isn’t so bad, like if you’re trying to sell a product. But, as I see it, that’s kind of the core problem nowadays: Everything (even news) has been turned into a sales pitch. It’s no longer about conveying the information, but rather about selling you something. And that’s just lame.
He's just a grumpy old man.