Penmanship in the Digital Age

[kjv1611]

I recently realized that I've so adjusted myself to typing most everything I "write" that I am losing my ability to write with a pen/pencil. I've never had the best hand-writing, but I could sure write whatever I wanted before I got more and more dependent upon a keyboard.

It seems as if I've lost some muscle strength or dexterity in some muscles in my writing hand. I can write a couple of sentences, maybe a paragraph, now, and have to take a break, b/c of cramps in a few muscles in my hand.

I thought I'd ask Google if others had similar issues, and I found this short interesting blog post:

http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2007/11/13/my_long_lost_ha.html

I think the ability to write should always be important. For instance, you never know when you may be in a circumstance where you cannot easily access a computer keyboard.

Does anyone here have any thoughts on the importance of penmanship in a digital age?

 

[KenCunningham]

Westi, that's a rather unusual take on the usual situation where the pharmacist seems to be the only person qualified/able to decipher doctors' scrawl.

The internet - allowing those who don't know what they're talking about to have their say.

 

[Sympology]

I can type 150 words a minute and then delete 140 just as quickly.


Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

 

[Westi]

Ken
I think that is why they can read the doctors scribble, because their own writing is worse.
I am also faster typing than writing but I still have to glance at the keyboard intermittently to hit the right letters and with lots of backspace in between.

Joe W.

FHandw., ACSS

insanity is just a state of mind

 

[SantaMufasa]

I can type 150 words a minute and then delete 140 just as quickly.

That reminds me of my dad...he memorized over 77,000 different telephone numbers...[hide]He just didn't know whose they were. <grin>[/hide]

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
“Beware of those that seek to protect you from harm or risk. The cost will be your freedoms and your liberty.”

 

[Scott24x7]

LOL. My dad always said (of himself) "I can type 100 mistakes a minute". (Yeah, he overestimated that... he couldn't type 30 mistakes a minute!)


Best Regards,
Scott

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[jsteph]

Personally, my handwriting stays constant (it was never great to begin with) due to a great deal of note-taking. I'm in meetings nearly every day, and I tend to take a lot of notes and I need to read them, so I have to keep the penmanship at a reasonable proficiency.

And for this purpose, I don't see PDA's replacing hand-written notes, at least not for me. I've gone down that road, from graffiti to direct stylus doodling, and no electronic tool--laptop, pda, blackberry, whatever--can beat my own handwriting on paper for note-taking. Plus, a lot of my note-taking involves flow-charting and that's too cumbersome to do on a laptop when you're in a setting like a meeting--I'm miles ahead doing it on paper and then digitizing a final version later.

Just my 2c.
--Jim

 

[djj55]

If I slow down I can write okay but long ago (before computers) I started printing instead of cursive so I could read my own writing.

djj
The Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 23) - I need someone to lead me!

 

[mjldba]

I tend to print because I want to be sure other people in my dept. can read my notes because, aside from my signature, my handwritting is awful.

Actually, I tend to join the printed letters together in a flowing manner to I guess I use a hybrid form of manuscript & cursive.