Mon 4 Feb 2008
With the increasing ubiquitousness of keyboard- and keypad- and touchscreen-driven devices in daily life, and with that trend toward non-writing input methods likely to continue over time, is handwriting (in its various forms) on the way out? When, or why not?
Posted by Josh Millard12 answers so far!
(A caveat on vocabulary; “handwriting” here is meant to convey the broad activity of writing things down by hand, as with a pen or pencil. That includes block printing, cursive, caligraphy, and all points in between. References to specific subsets is totally kosher, it may be helpful to be clear if you’re talking about one specific subset of the practice.)
I had to take the GRE a while back and had to copy out a paragraph-long anti-cheating oath, which they insisted must be written in cursive. It was then that I discovered that I hadn’t written in cursive in so long that it was agonizing to do. I don’t imagine that I’ll stop writing notes, grocery lists, etc. by hand any time soon, but cursive sure is dead to me, and I suspect it is for many others as well.
When I was in elementary school — this was the mid-to-late 1980s — we never even did cursive. The program we did was “Italic”, which I remember thinking of at the time mostly as “this is stupid, why do we have to learn to write slanty?”. (Bizarre now to think that “Italic” was a strange terms, as I wrap the last word in the previous sentence in <i> tags.)
So insofar as I’ve heard people eulogize (or at least presage the death of) cursive, I wonder if I was learning to write at a point after the killing blow had already landed — or if my school system was just weird.
The short of it is that I can’t write cursive to save my life. I can make a point of not lifting my pen, but as I understand it that’s not quite the extent of the art.
There are situations where a hand-written note is the only way to go. 2006 was the Year Of The Thank You Note for me as I got married and then had a baby. Anyone who thinks that an emailed thank you is appropriate for a gift is just plain wrong. And it’s hard to imagine emailing or texting a sympathy note. I like seeing people’s handwriting – I think the way someone writes expresses a lot about who they are. Not in a handwriting analysis sort of way, but just how most people (maybe those of a certain age) have a distinctive style all their own.
I agree with Horace Rumpole about cursive, though. In 3rd grade when they told us we’d be learning to write in this new style, I remember thinking, “Not me! Why should I when I can already print?” And my handwriting to this day is print, not script. I hope we’ll never get to the point where handwriting is a lost art. That would be sad.
And it’s hard to imagine emailing or texting a sympathy note.
Ah, but are we just the old farts, the get-off-my-lawn geezers of tomorrow? Taking it as a given that folks who have grown up valuing handwriting (print or script) aren’t likely to give it up, what about the next crop of kids? The ones for whom an email or a text is a more normal written form of communication?
So I don’t think we can say that handwriting is safe based on our own existing preferences, though it’s a fair point that momentum from the current generation would probably make the disappearance a slower, more drawn-out affair.
You know, a couple of years ago, I would have said “Yes, and good riddance.” I can type an order of magnitude faster than I can hand write, and it looks neater besides.
But I find that hand writing has a lot of uses. I keep my journal by hand, and I find that I’m never more organized than when I keep a hand-written to-do list.
Basically, when I’m trying to think something through a little more slowly, hand writing is a much better solution than typing.
Plus, I can draw diagrams, and I can hand write on any piece of paper that I can touch a pen to. There’s a lot more flexibility than with the printed word.
Haha, I think to some extent a lot of hardcore traditionalists will insist on handwriting, but in the current generation, yeah, it’s largely obsolete. The most that students use handwriting for now is math – no matter how good an equation editor may be, it’s still not as quick and efficient as writing out those damn greek symbols and page-long equations by hand. But if the deterioration of legibility in handwritten exams is any indication, it’s definitely a dying art. A few of my professors announced at the beginning of the term that laptops would not be allowed in class, and man, the looks of horror!
Haha. Anecdotally. I used to write stories in class. This would’ve been grade 6-9. I had a notebook with me wherever I went and if there was a lull in class I’d try to scribble down a couple of paragraphs. In grade 9 I ended up going to a pretty demanding program and there were no longer lulls, and my time after shcool was spent researching, writing papers, or talking to people to try and guess what the material on the next text would be. I recently decided I wanted to try the method of grade 6 again, because that was the only time in my life when I actually wrote consistently, and realized I couldn’t write more than a paragraph or two before my writing disintegrated painfully, and if I wanted my notebook to retain any vestige of legibility I had to take great pains to write slowly and carefully. That was a bit of a painful realization.
The thing I love about writing longhand though is that it’s so concrete and so personal. If I’m trying to think through something/conduct introspection, I much prefer writing things out on a lined piece of paper than typing it out 130 wpm on notepad. Writing forces you to slow down your thinking and be so much more thorough about what you’re doing, and it tends to come out less rambly (because the more you ramble, the more your hand has to write out). This post = case in point.
I shall go back to not paying attention in Stats now, ty for reading. :P
*wince* note to self. Edit more. I read the word ‘pain’ three times in three sentences. Ouch, Phire.
Well on the one hand I’d be happy if I never had to write anything long again… but on the other hand, there’s nothing like some really nice handwriting in a thank you note or things like that.
I apparently never had good handwriting… I remember always getting Cs on my penmanship. I don’t think it’s a very fair thing to grade… I mean, how can you be totally objective about handwriting, when everyone’s handwriting is different? If the teacher likes it you get an A.
I know what you mean IndigoRain. I’m your stereotypical guy with shitty writing, and it still is and always will be.
Like others have said, writing down stuff has definite uses. When I write a grocery list, I used to use me PDA as the list. Then I felt like a complete tool sitting there in a busy grocery store trying to edit my PDA list. Plus, it is just easier to scratch off what I’ve bought with a pen than a stylus.
I think if we had a better relationship with our handwriting, culturally, it would stand a better chance. It can be so personal, so expressive. Now we can teach children that a bare minimum of legibility was sufficent, since we don’t use it universally any more. There’s really no other way to write a love letter, so I hope we keep it, as a common art.
Looking at the legal pad with my hours and notes, and the little notepads with my hours and other notes before I transferred them to the legal pad, and the notes I take by hand, I’d say “no.”
I like to write some things out by hand (lists, etc.) and I take notes over the phone by hand. If I’m explaining something to someone (in the same room) I write it out. I do write cursive sometimes but my handwriting is not that great. My mom has beautiful handwriting and she writes me handwritten notes and cards. I type letters to her on the premise that it will be easier for her to read, but in all honesty, I am lazy as all get out and it hurts my hand to write a long letter.