Monday, January 30, 2017

Lamenting the past

During my school years, I had neat, legible handwriting, at least for a male. That started to change when I went to university. This was long before lecturers used PowerPoint, and consumers had access to affordable laptop computers. I took notes in lectures and tutorials by hand, and had to write them quickly so that I didn't miss any important information. I noticed that my handwriting greatly deteriorated as a result.

Before I bought a computer in early 1996, I even wrote my university essays by hand before typing them on an electric typewriter. I did this for three of my four years as an undergraduate student. Looking back now, I don't know how I managed. Then again, since I was pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree, it's not as though I had a very demanding workload.

Observers of such things have noted that since the proliferation of email, instant messaging, text messages, and chat people are using handwritten communication less often. Writing letters and sending greeting cards has dropped off sharply.

It is as though my brain has been rewired. I have to concentrate hard to write neatly in greeting cards, and my shopping lists. Somewhat self deprecatingly, I wonder if there's such a thing as remedial handwriting classes for adults. I also wonder if handwriting is dying out.

6 comments:

Ann ODyne said...

Well there's a gap in the market. Handwriting classes. The late Lady Diana Spencer managed a lovely script churning out all those thank-you notes which have been revealed since she died.
I print. Had measles or something just when my primary school class graduated to cursive script, so I 'missed the jump' and never caught up. My signature always gets a comment at banks and solicitors.
Your profile is very impressive. I followed you home from Dina's blog. Now to Twitter to vent my spleen. Cheers

Bill said...

This happened to me too! In fact, I was an early resister to using the computer to take notes in class. I kept on writing them out by hand. But eventually I switched. Recently I was in the library taking notes for some research I was doing and I realized that my handwriting is now illegible. I had to get out the laptop to finish.

Ross said...

Thankyou for your comment.

Does that mean that you never obtained your pen licence? :)

That was a rite of passage in the Victorian primary school system in my day. I don't know if they still have it.

Ross said...

Thankyou for using your local library, Bill.

Ann ODyne said...

Love The Liberry worth the visit. really.

Ross said...

That's an amusing blog. It needs to be updated more regularly.