Ever since I've started using Flexbox, I find myself using it everywhere, even in places where the traditional approach still works perfectly.
Take the traditional float:left/right case for example; I'm finding myself writing display:flex and justify-content: space-around with a bunch of prefixes instead of just using floats with just a clearfix.
Since a lot of people still don't consider flexbox as the de-facto way for layouts, is this addiction any good? or should I stick with the traditional approach?
Things flexbox is good at:
I don't use them for everything because they introduce complexity, but I am starting to use them quite a bit. I think layouts are a good example of where flexbox is a useful tool.
Flexbox makes your life easy and so you're addicted to it. Using less lines of code, you can do a lot of work. But there can be certain cases where you don't really need that stuff. IMO, if you can do your modification without using flexbox, you shouldn't use it. However, if you think that if you use flexbox, it will be maintainable, you can use flexbox.
Think about it this way: you can do some modification without using jQuery but you know that if you use jQuery, your work will become easier and so you tend to use jQuery.
So, I would suggest you to decide based on test cases. If you think that you can modify without using flexbox, then don't use it. However, if you think that it will take much more time and a lot of hacky ways to get your job done, then use flexbox if the scope actually permits you.
Hope this helps! :)
Jakub
Web Developer
There is no reason to stick with hacky floats. Except you have to support older browsers. But since Microsoft dropped the support for old IE versions, I think we are fine.
Flexbox is made for all the layouting issues we had in the past. Since some time, I am also building all projects with flexbox. It is just so much easier and cleaner.