Is the art of hand writing in danger of dying out?

DEFTLEFTHAND

I was writing xmas cards last month and I noticed a deterioration in my own hand writing. I realised that apart from using the odd post it note in work I really don't practice this skill anymore. Practically everything I produce is on a keyboard or touch screen.

The future generations of kids in school may eventually do all their work through a computer.


It would be sad if it did go by the wayside. It's a lovely art and unique to the person. No two people write the same.

kenmc

I can't even read my own writing

me_irl

I'm a lefty, it's been f*cked from the get go. :pac:

So, I do try to avoid writing messages or notes whenever I can (except for maybe shopping lists).

Sure everything is through WhatsApp, email, Twitter nowadays.

frag420

Can I post my reply to you OP?

me_irl

frag420 wrote: »

Can I post my reply to you OP?

...you just di...OOOHHH!

Icaras

As long as there's toilet cubical walls there'll be handwriting

MilesMorales1

I write every single day, so no. You can argue its pretty stupid/pretentious to spend 20 quid on a notebook to keep a note of money I spend, and a journal of sorts, but I much prefer it to typing.

Collie D

I notice this myself when I write anything by hand. My handwriting was never pretty anyway but perfectly legible. Not so much know as it's usually just a quick scribble on a postit note.

I've definitely left a meeting or been showed some new process (we've just installed a new system in work) and looked at my notepad and thought "WTF does that say?!"

Another thing I've noticed and it has always bugged me when others do it is writing "too" instead of "two" or vice versa. I'll blame that one on predictive text though.

Permabear

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dxhound2005

Permabear wrote: »

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Ironically typing must be a skill which is being lost as well. In the past lots of people learned how to type, but now it is all what I call one finger merchants. I learned back in the 1970's when teleprinters / telex machines were the technology, but also have used old style typewriters.

For those that don't know this typing exercise contains all the letter of the alphabet. I can touch type as it is known, with my eyes closed.

THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG.

dxhound2005

Icaras wrote: »

As long as there's toilet cubical walls there'll be handwriting

I hope they're not all cubical.

Yeah, Jesus, overall you'd wonder what the world will be like in a couple of generations..

donegaLroad

I agree OP. Nice handwriting is almost an art at this stage. I had noticed my own handwriting deteriorating recently when I was filling out a form.

There is a guy locally who does a lot of business writing extracts of Yeat's poetry on parchment paper. He does it in a sort of calligraphy style, but his own blend.

Also, a lady I used to play music with has beautiful handwriting, and sells her own song lyrics on hand made paper, framed.

Harry Palmr

I did exams for the first time in decades last year, during the revision notes I quickly gave up doing traditional long hand and reverted to ALL CAPS which I used in the exams. If I could read it so could the examiner.

AllForIt

Being someone who remembers when there was no internet or even very few home computers it's interesting to me why when communication is completely given over to the internet why it's still considered important that writing with ink is actually that important?

It is clearly more valuable today to have the skills to type on a artificial touch screen keyboard that it is to write with ink so I don't see what the problem is.

I'm sure that when writing with ball point pens replaced writing with feather quills their was similar outrage.

AllForIt

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I did exams for the first time in decades last year, during the revision notes I quickly gave up doing traditional long hand and reverted to ALL CAPS which I used in the exams. If I could read it so could the examiner.

Actually I did a written exam last December and it did occur to me that maybe given the time we live in exams should be done using a computer word processor. I took one of those erasable ink pens with me and it was a bit of a pain.

dxhound2005

Another irony is that in a thousand years time there will probably be no record of this thread. Nor things written now in ballpoint ink, which does not last.

Pencil and fountain pen ink records may survive, but all will probably be outlasted by writings on stone from thousands of years ago.

Permabear

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ChikiChiki

kenmc wrote: »

I can't even read my own writing

Thank god I'm not the only one. I've often come out of work sessions and not been able to read some of the actions I wrote down.

A 3 year olds writing is better than mine. Thats no exaggeration.

Grab All Association

I tend to write only in shorthand these days. Shopping list puzzles the teenager in the local shop.

Jimbob1977

I wrote 63 Christmas cards.

My hand started to cramp after six cards. It's rare that I'd write anymore.

Handwriting will probably become obsolete in 20 years' time.

seamus

What I find funny is that the less exposure you have to hand writing, the harder it is to read it. I used to be able to read any godawful scratchings on paper, but I had to read a very nicely written note the other day and found myself stumbling through it.

Anyway, writing by hand isn't really going anywhere. For general communications, yes, but for learning not so much. Kids still do the whole thing of tracing the shape of letters and then writing them fifty times, when they're learning how to read.

This is not only important for knowing how to write, but the practice of writing them down and tracing the shapes embeds the patterns in one's brain and improves overall reading ability. So even if kids never have to write anything down again, the act of tracing out the letters in pencil is still very important.

Contrary to Permabear's assertion, I find it impossible to write anything of worth away from a computer. It ends up being a disjointed and poorly structured mess.

I find note-taking and drafting waaay easier on a computer because it's far easier to edit and manipulate what you're writing than it is if you've committed it to paper. Scratching out words and re-writing onto a new sheet is time consuming and chaotic. Deleting and moving text on a screen allows you to play with the words and keep ideas organised.
I'll use a notepad where it's more convenient to carry than a laptop, but then transfer then to a computer as soon as possible if I need to hold onto them.

Even where I plan on a handwritten letter, I'll draft it in digital form first before copying it verbatim to paper.

suicide_circus

"Art" being the operative word. It's no longer a necessary life skill. Unless WWIII knocks out all the power production are we're back to parchment by candlelight!

Oldtree

ChikiChiki wrote: »

Thank god I'm not the only one. I've often come out of work sessions and not been able to read some of the actions I wrote down.

A 3 year olds writing is better than mine. Thats no exaggeration.

Same here, after I move onto the next topic I've no idea what I've written.

The end of handwriting started back in the nineties with voice activated typing software like Kurswell. A fantastic modern one is Dragon.

Permabear

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suicide_circus

Permabear wrote: »

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Makes sense.

csallmighty

seamus wrote: »

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So true. I took my CV to be reviewed by a guy and I couldn't make any sense of the scribbles he made on it. I had to get my mum to read it to me, she still regularly writes letters.

Permabear wrote: »

Studies do find that college students show better understanding and recall of their lectures when they take notes by hand, rather than on a laptop. It does seem that handwriting can be an important aid to learning.

Even though all course content is usually posted online, the only way I could ever prepare for college exams was to write out the notes several times. To me, the action of reading and writing is more powerful for learning.

_Roz_

Writing was always how I used learn stuff. I'd take notes in class/lecture. I'd write a summary of that content. Then I'd write a bullet list of headings with a number beside it, indicating the number of points I need to know under that heading. Three levels of filtering.

I just finished a cert online, and took all my notes (from live lectures) online, but it was a very practical course, virtually no theory tests, just putting theory into practice which is the best way to learn anyway.

Starting online Masters soon, much the same.

As for handwriting, mine was always atrocious, but I rarely write anymore, and I have noticed a huge deterioration in my ability to write even semi-decently now. It's a shame.

Canard

I write a lot because I'm a teacher, but my handwriting has never been great. Apparently it was very nice when I first learned aged 7/8 to write in cursive, but it rapidly deteriorated to the point that I had to get extra homework for practice. Nowadays it's not the worst you'd find, but it is by no means aesthetically pleasing. I can write better on a whiteboard though.

I took all my lecture notes by hand in college, but I dunno, it's so much slower and more cumbersome that I could rarely make sense of them if I even bothered to look again. For one lecture which was packed with useful information I started to type up the notes, and while you could argue that writing helps us to retain the information better, I would counter that by saying that actually being able to make sense of the notes after is much more effective.

When I started learning Russian I had to do the whole tracing the letters, learning the cursive form etc again and it was torture... I've resolved never to handwrite it. :P Overall I wouldn't miss it if it were to die out; I hate making handwritten notes. No matter how personal or kinaesthetic it may be, it simply looks so bad in comparison to something I can type and colour code that I can't stand it.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

seamus wrote: »

What I find funny is that the less exposure you have to hand writing, the harder it is to read it. I used to be able to read any godawful scratchings on paper, but I had to read a very nicely written note the other day and found myself stumbling through it.

Try reading handwriting in a different alphabet. I could never read Korean handwriting, not even the simplest things. Koreans, even those fluent in English, often say they can't read English handwriting because they didn't grow up with it.

whoopsadoodles

I have very pretty handwriting. I also have very pretty hands. I was once told by a female colleague that watching me write was mesmerising!

AllForIt

Permabear wrote: »

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I think anyone using a computer word processor who wants to settle down and think, wouldn't be too put out to turn the wifi off. These days the pings and whistles come from the smartphones more so than the PC so if Rowling still uses pen and paper she would still have to turn her smartphone data connection off.

seamus wrote: »

What I find funny is that the less exposure you have to hand writing, the harder it is to read it. I used to be able to read any godawful scratchings on paper, but I had to read a very nicely written note the other day and found myself stumbling through it.

Anyway, writing by hand isn't really going anywhere. For general communications, yes, but for learning not so much. Kids still do the whole thing of tracing the shape of letters and then writing them fifty times, when they're learning how to read.

This is not only important for knowing how to write, but the practice of writing them down and tracing the shapes embeds the patterns in one's brain and improves overall reading ability. So even if kids never have to write anything down again, the act of tracing out the letters in pencil is still very important.

Contrary to Permabear's assertion, I find it impossible to write anything of worth away from a computer. It ends up being a disjointed and poorly structured mess.

I find note-taking and drafting waaay easier on a computer because it's far easier to edit and manipulate what you're writing than it is if you've committed it to paper. Scratching out words and re-writing onto a new sheet is time consuming and chaotic. Deleting and moving text on a screen allows you to play with the words and keep ideas organised.
I'll use a notepad where it's more convenient to carry than a laptop, but then transfer then to a computer as soon as possible if I need to hold onto them..

I think you have made some very good points there. For one, joined up handwriting is not necessarily that easy to decipher. I'm sure when GP's prescriptions were computerised there were a lot of chemists thankful for it.

humpsterfire

It will be a distinguisher in the near future, just like spelling (u wot m8?!).

There will be those that can spell and write (the educated), and those who cant (great unwashed). Backwards we gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Permabear

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