Things We're Killing Off Slowly - I

Writing. Quite literally writing with a pen/pencil on paper/any other writing material is dying a slow and steady death.

Why this?

The Fellow asked me to help him out with something and the first thing I did was to pick up a book and pen to do it. Thirty seconds later I was reaching out for my laptop and Ms Word.

Now I know that most people don’t really write write once they’re out of college and the whole exam giving-writing for three hours circus we’re made to go through is behind us like a horrible nightmare. But the fact that I found/realised I could type faster (much much much faster) than I could write shocked me a little bit. I mean I could once take down what the teacher was going on and on about in class almost verbatim (without using shorthand) and now I couldn’t write 2 pages (actually 2 lines) without my hand resisting the unfamiliar action!

I know technology changes the way you live and do things blah blah blah. But I can’t come to terms with the fact that writing will soon become a lost art (if it’s not already) and in a couple of decades museums will carry samples of handwriting in temperature controlled glass cases for school children to press their noses against and look at in open mouthed wonder!

Of course someone living in the 18^th-19^th centuries probably thinks we’re philistines today, what with our ball pens and gel pens and flimsy paper instead of gorgeous ink pens and quills and heavy beautiful paper which were an expensive commodity at one time. If I could I would love to write that way – copperplate writing and everything.

Instead, here I am clattering on my keyboard at full speed with my fingers quite literally losing the muscle strength to hold a pen for extended periods of time anymore.