Two separate articles in the same paper had me scratching my head. The first explored the idea that handwriting is “history”, whilst the second lauded the Tablet as the gadget of 2010.
The idea that handwriting is a communication tool that’s had its day is not new – its critics, however, are not united in agreeing the basis of their relief that it’s dying. Anne Trubek (whose work was the basis of the Times piece) believes that it is “inefficient”; that the time taken to jot something down is time we could be spending in thought. She also discusses how it is more democratic due to standardisation. People can’t make judgements about a correspondent’s social position or intelligence based purely on the look of a typed text (however an affection for Comic Sans might lead to some negative assumptions being made). Others have spent so much time in the keyboard age, that their writing skills have diminished and believe that this is not something to lament.
Efficiency
I recently bought a Smartpen and it satisfies both my love for new gadgets and my affection for handwriting. Of course I type, but I treasure the activity of writing as something that allows me to give greater consideration to my thoughts. Once I’ve written notes, I can upload them to the computer and transfer it to editable text. The Smartpen is much handier to carry around than my laptop so I can make notes on the fly with greater ease. It’s the best of both worlds.
Obsolescence
For me, typing is far easier – and much quicker – than writing. This is not, however, the case for a lot of people, including – it seems to me from observation – young people who are so often touted as being in a post-handwriting generation. This is mostly because nobody has actually taught them to type, so their typing is inefficient and often full of errors. I don’t look back on my old manual typewriter lessons days with a great deal of nostalgia, however knowing how to touch type means that I can type at around 90 words a minute and do other things at the same time. Most people I’ve watched – in the workplace, at internet cafes, in libraries – are still pecking away at the keyboard, searching for the c. Often at home I’m amazed by the furious, lengthy tapping over at the other laptop in the house and wonder what opus is being created, only to be Skyped with a couple of words and a URL.
Handwriting in technology
Regardless of whether you think the kids of today need to practice their copperplate or not, it seems odd that the same paper sang the praises of the anticipated tablets, given that having recognisable handwriting would seem to be one of the prerequisites of getting the most out of this technology. I haven’t seen all that much about the new tablets, but – as usual – the press seems to be getting most excited about the anticipated offering from Apple.
For my money, this Microsoft offering seems to be the lustworthiest. Perhaps because it looks like an old fashioned journal? I want one…
In the last few months, I’ve been working on a business plan. Initially, the work was done on word processor but I found that there was little depth to my work. For some reason, I decided to switch to handwriting. Now, my handwriting is awful, so I’ve also had to write slowly and deliberately. As it turned out, by writing slowly, my thoughts and opinions seem to have more depth. It’s as if by being forced to slow down, you are forced to contemplate the words. The final plan will be done by word processor, but it was interesting to note how speed didn’t translate to quality.
On a more general level, I’m trying to get away from multi-tasking. IT’s the issue of having a number of windows open on your computer as you check your facebook, twitter, read an article, music in the background, keeping an eye on the cooking, and have an online conversastion with someone. I’m trying to get back to doing one thing at a time and appreciating the task for what it is.
One benefit of handwriting that I have noticed is that some other people only seem capable of punctuating correctly when doing so. There seem to be people who can punctuate flawlessly when writing words on paper by hand, but get them to type an email, and… yeah. Obviously I’m not one of the people who has this problem, but for their sakes, it’s probably a good thing that we keep handwritten notes around.
As for me, I guess there are aspects in which each is better. Generally I prefer to type, because when I type, I can go back and easily edit what I wrote (with handwritten things there’s no going back — or only a limited amount of going back, anyway. White-out can only do so much, and even if you use it you have to wait for it to dry and I inevitably get impatient and end up carving into the white-out instead… not my idea of fun). Also if for some reason one of either typing or handwriting would be outlawed, I would prefer everyone typed, because some people have IMPOSSIBLE handwriting to decipher (like my unit 4 Revs teacher…). But obviously that’s not going to happen. Handwriting has its merits too, of course, because sometimes it’s actually desirable not to be able to go back (like when you want to write something fast and are liable to procrastinate for half on hour on the best way to phrase a sentence… as I occasionally am). Also, when typing you’re kind of forced to be linear… when I handwrite, I can draw arrows all over the place and things going up the side of the page and not everything has to be linear. Especially when brainstorming stuff, that’s good.
And I agree about Comic Sans. A couple of years ago I was looking at the website of the Democratic Labor Party, and the entire thing was in Comic Sans. It made their fearmongering rants about communism just that extra bit more hilarious.
Injera, interesting that you say that about the younger generation not being able to touch type. I agree, and I wonder why they don’t teach in say year 9 all it would need is an hour a week for 10 weeks. And the advantage to the students would be phenomenal.
I learnt on the old manual, and I thought it was fantastic when I finally got onto an electric typewriter. Feeling old now.
Daniel – I admire you resolution not to multi task online, I would like to know how you go.
.-= reality raver´s last blog ..Sylvania Waters – Remember Noelene Donahue? =-.
Now, this may sound completely ridiculous, but I hadn’t even considered the Tablet as something that I would like for myself as I hadn’t thought of it as something used for handwriting. When I heard about the Apple Tablet, I thought it would be great for my partner as a device for his illustrations and new that he’d be excited about it. But it wasn’t until now, Injera, that I could actually have a use for it. I suppose I am still unable to really separate handwriting with pen and, more importantly, paper. Hmph. I’ve just realised that I haven’t written anything in detail without a keyboard in a while. I consider handwriting to be more personal, like when writing in cards or letters (which I rarely write these days much to my Grandma’s endless disappointment), and I used to make drafts in writing but not so much these days.
The last time I tried my hand hurt so I gave up. Writer’s fatigue (WF). It’s a killer. I’m not much of a gadget person and still struggle using a computer yet am writing the old fashioned way less and less. So what to do? That Microsoft Journal thing does look beautiful. It may be my answer…easy to use, you think? Hope so.
@Daniel
Handwriting as means of active contemplation is important. It’s interesting to see that idea applied in a business context. I hope the business plan is successful!
I love the idea of stopping multi-tasking (she says, having taken a break from typing this to click on a link Tweetdeck popped up…). I’ve made some rules for myself, such as only opening five new tabs at a time from my reader, and reading them and marking them as read before moving on to the next five. I’m going to make January my month of mono-tasking based on your lead. Thanks!
@Jess
The correct punctuation/handwriting link is interesting. Do you think it’s because there are some people who treat written forms as more “formal” and the keyboarded form as “casual”?
The editing thing is key; as you say, white-out is painful, particularly if you have thought of a more elegant way of expressing something and are trying hard not to lose the phrasing as you wait for the liquid paper to dry (and those tapes, whilst overcoming the drying issue, are quite possibly the world’s most frustrating invention after cling wrap). I like to cross out lightly and write the correction/edit above, but that’s only possible when the draft is for my eyes only – it can lead to ambiguity if somebody else tries to read it.
I think the DLP must have taken your criticism to heart! Their site is now “under construction” (it still looks awful, but they’ve subbed Times New Roman for the Comic Sans).
@reality raver
There should be room in the curriculum for keyboard skills. Having said that, I guess our typing lessons are the IT lessons of today and IT teachers focus on things other than this! My first experience of an electric typewriter was one of the IBM golf ball ones. My god – watching that thing moving around was mesmerising!
(On that, @Jess, are you still using the Dvorak keyboard? Do you touch-type, and – if so – how did you relearn that from qwerty?)
@teacoffeetea
I’m clearly more self-absorbed than you are! Whenever I see a new gadget I just assume it’s been developed for me and get frustrated when I can’t see how it will fit into my life…
Writer’s cramp is one of my enduring memories from uni. God, all those notes! And did we ever refer to them after the lectures? Of course, I think that writing the key points helps to embed them in your memory, so that would be the key benefit.
Anyway, it’s 2010 already, so where are our tablets? Shouldn’t they have arrived by now?
Teenagers today… (my god I have just revealed my old age and where are my glasses?) anyway… teenagers today seem to be stuck between type and handwriting. The index-jab style of typing used by most teenagers reveals their lack of type literacy yet most teenagers write more online that anywhere else. On the other hand final VCE exams must be handwritten and the back to school stationary catalogues and Smiggle obsessions reveal a genuine fetish for stationary that is only rivaled by 60 year old retired men and, well, me. Schools (and possibly University) are still places where handwriting is valued but after leaving these establishments handwriting seems to be relegated to shopping lists and the occasional card.
Injera, it could be due to handwriting being perceived as more formal. Also, things like capital letters are relatively less effort when handwriting, since you have to write them just like any other letter of the alphabet, whereas when you type you have to press shift or capslock first. So, especially in an “informal” medium like typing, people get too lazy to exert that extra effort. And then spelling mistakes are harder to make while writing (excluding the influence of spellcheck) than typing — I know I make typos much more frequently than I accidentally handwrite the wrong letter (although I do do that, too!).
And then handwriting could just be better at disguising certain types of mistakes. Like, if someone’s not sure whether the quotation mark is supposed to go before the comma/full stop/etc. or afterwards, they could just write it directly on top, and people will interpret it however is correct.
I am still using the Dvorak keyboard layout, yep. I think I learned this layout the same way I learned QWERTY: practice. I don’t think I would count as a badge-wearing member of the touch-typists’ club, since I glance at the keyboard fairly frequently when I type. It’s to see that I’m oriented correctly rather than to see where the keys are — I know where they are, but if I ever hit the key next to the one I meant to hit, then every key afterwards will also be the one next to the one I meant to hit until I re-orientate myself. I don’t have a “home row” on which I base my fingers so I remember every key relative to every other key. And I’m pretty sure that’s the same way I remembered QWERTY.
I’m glad the DLP took my criticism to heart. Now if only they could do something about their policies!
@realityraver and @injerarufus
Who would have thought it was so hard to give up multi-tasking?
So far, I’ve managed to strip back to the idea that if I’m on the computer, that’s it. If I’m reading a book, that’s it. No being on the computer and reading a few paragraphs whilst waiting for responses from friends on facebook or twitter.
@tequilamockingbird
GET OFF MY LAWN! Ha – we’ve been watching old episodes of Real Time and Bill Maher stamps “Oh, Grampa!” on clips of John McCain being all crotchety… I guess if I hadn’t had hours of FRF FRF JUJ JUJ ad infinitum I would have developed my own keyboard patois. Given how much IM the kids of today seem to be doing, it really doesn’t seem to hold them back, does it? (tho they r riting a diff lang 2 wot we r)
@Jess
I completely mess up quotation marks and punctuation all the time. You’re so right – handwriting does allow people to blur those distinctions/lacks. I hadn’t considered the idea of the additional effort/coordination necessary for caps in typing, either.
@Daniel
Monotasking is in! So far I’m not bored, but it’s only day two…