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The End of Handwriting

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Re: The End of Handwriting

#121

Post by bluGill »

skirge wrote: post #33
IT4MD wrote: post #7

I don't see a lot of people still writing with quills, and there's a reason for that, yet there have been no catastrophic consequences, excepting maybe for "Big Quill". Personally, I think this veers into hyperbole a bit. The degradation in motor skills is barely measurable when compared to common tasks required of people today and we're talking about a skill that has less and less use cases every day. I believe this…

If you don't want to be replaced by machine you need a skill which machine can't replicate and train that skill somehow. Or become a very good machine operator.

Machines have been writing with pens for longer than I've been alive - since 1958 according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotter#History.

For that matters, pens are a type of machine. if you use a pen you are a machine operator.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#122

Post by spicyusername »

"Good" handwriting is just not a skill that is needed by everyone.

Legible handwriting, sure, but it's not some social tragedy that kids don't learn cursive or that most adults communicate through keyboard.

The kids who grow into adults who need handwriting as a skill, whether they become architects or just like to write their thoughts down, will learn to write legibly by virtue of the fact that they need the skill. Simple as.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#123

Post by bluGill »

jiehong wrote: post #49

Meanwhile, the Japanese Stationary Store Awards 2025 just happened [0]. [0]: https://www.fusosha.co.jp/special/bunbougu/

The Japanese are famiously behind everyone else in dropping hand writing. In part because their script is really hard to type (or so I'm given to understand), in part just culture. We can debate if hand writing is good or bad, but an outlier example is not part of any useful debate.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#124

Post by ACCount37 »

bayindirh wrote: post #107
ACCount37 wrote: post #104

Good fucking riddance. Not every skill is worthwhile. Trying to justify clinging to this obsolete practice simply reeks of sunk cost.

This is an interesting comment. Esp. when there's concrete and mounting evidence for the benefits of it.

There is also "concrete and mounting evidence" for the unacceptable dangers of mass vaccination - according to anti-vaxxers.

If you set out on a mission to find evidence of something, and put in enough effort, you'll find it. The quality of that "evidence" is another matter entirely.

If handwriting is increasingly useless by itself - and we are already in a world where the vast majority of writing is digital - then for it to be worthwhile, the "side benefits" of learning and practicing handwriting must outweigh the benefits of literally any other thing you could be doing instead.

That's a very high bar to clear - and I don't think that the janky evidence we have supports this.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#125

Post by WillAdams »

spicyusername wrote: post #122

"Good" handwriting is just not a skill that is needed by everyone. Legible handwriting, sure, but it's not some social tragedy that kids don't learn cursive or that most adults communicate through keyboard. The kids who grow into adults who need handwriting as a skill, whether they become architects or just like to write their thoughts down, will learn to write legibly by virtue of the fact that they need the skill.…

Tell that to the folks in Türkiye who have to hire scribes to transcribe their parents' letters.

Not offering the class from the beginning to all is a lost opportunity, and moreover, robs children of a connection with their parents and grandparents.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#126

Post by bayindirh »

ACCount37 wrote: post #124
bayindirh wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an interesting comment. Esp. when there's concrete and mounting evidence for the benefits of it.

There is also "concrete and mounting evidence" for the unacceptable dangers of mass vaccination - according to anti-vaxxers. If you set out on a mission to find evidence of something, and put in enough effort, you'll find it. The quality of that "evidence" is another matter entirely. If handwriting is increasingly useless by itself - and we are already in a world where the vast majority of writing is digital - then f…

I understand. In the comments there are already links to high quality research, plus experiences of the users.

But as you say, if you set out on a mission to find (or equally ignore) evidence of something, and put in enough effort, you'll find (or ignore) it.

So good luck. What you think might be very different from the reality.

I'll leave it here because it's pretty evident that even if I lie tomes in front of you on that particular subject, your mind is already set in stone on that matter.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#128

Post by southernplaces7 »

As someone who despite all attempts at improvement has always had handwriting that looks more like what a chicken might create on paper if you inked its feet and fed it meth, good riddance. Being left-handed too, think smeared chicken scratches.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#130

Post by wussboy »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #95
elros wrote: post #10

PSA for people with "bad cursive handwriting" but who would like to improve it: Write with FOUNTAIN PENS. Ideally on thicker paper, with something soft below (like more paper for example). Different writing systems evolved alongside different utensils. Cursive evolved to be written with a quill or a fountain pen. Ballpoint pens are an amazing invention and they have their place, but they optimize for price and practi…

I we had the same here in the Netherlands. Never helped me one bit. I even had to go to after-school handwriting coaching. My handwriting is still horrible. I think my main problem is that handwriting is so slow. I get impatient and rush it turning it into a mess. Reading it is also slow, even when written by someone with good handwriting it's a PITA to read cursive. I hope it dies out sooner rather than later.

I think the slowness is the point. I write in a journal as a way to collect my thought, get new ideas, focus my thinking. I’m always telling myself to slow down, because legibility and intelligence seem to both increase when I do so
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