Handwriting vs. Typing

[SteelCurtain]

I am left handed and my writing looks like chicken scratch unless I take my time.

[Bunburryist]

Wow!  Are you an artist of any kind?

Thank you.  Drawing's been a hobby since I was a kid. And a little calligraphy.

Perhaps you could "articize" your writing as is sometimes done with arabic script.  (Do a search for "Arabic script art" and you'll find lots of examples.)

[Fireball]

I type (keyboard) most of my communications, concurrent with the advent of the word processor. It's much faster and neater, and being able to edit is a great feature. I do hand-write notes and lists as all caps in what is called technical lettering, which I took up at the tender age of 14 (that's 50 YA) in drafting class. Much more readable than my chicken-scratch cursive, which even I couldn't read if enough time had elapsed.

[Rayaan]

It's much faster and neater, and being able to edit is a great feature.

Yeah being able to edit is the biggest advantage. I also revise a lot when I write. I might rewrite a sentence 6 times in slightly different ways, and another six times for an entire paragraph. So being able to edit is all the more valuable to me.

Typing on the computer also makes it easier and faster to search in a dictionary (online) and look for better-sounding words, synonyms, etc.

[paulpablo]

Typing wins for so many massive fucking HUGE reasons.

The sheer amount of paper wasted because people are still hand writing things in work places is fucked up.  Just talking about my workplace alone where we use so many sheets just to keep records of stuff that could so SO easily be kept and stored on a USB stick.
Same can be said for the NHS my friend worked for them and said she would hurt her back lifting the folders of paper they used.


So you're saving space, paper, the environment and so on, storage.

Less physical effort, I hate writing and avoid it so my hand aches now after just writing a few lines.

Way faster speed.

Instant, perfectly comprehendable neatness.

Superior editing capabilites.

I can't argue with evidence that writing things down helps you remember things better, that would especially work with me because I'd remember how annoyed I got at having to write something down.

But still I don't tend to write things down to remember things these days like I did in school, most of my typing is for communication.

An additional point to make though is that even though I like typing and modern technology, I still find touch screen so ridiculously annoying to an actual keyboard I can press.
I was much faster on my blackberry than my iphone but people laugh at you if you say you like blackberries more than iphones.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Did anyone else notice the unforgivable omission of FOUNTAIN pens from the list of "What pens say about you."?

HAND cramps are caused by improper technique - writing with the hand only instead of the whole arm.

If LEFTIES use the "alternative grip" (pen cradled between the index and middle finger) they won't smear the ink.

IMHO, the primary benefit of handwriting is that it is slower than typing and that's makes a person more reflective before they commit something to words.

[Losty]

I prefer handwriting whenever it's an option.

[Losty]

I prefer handwriting whenever it's an option.

Just to clarify...I prefer to write things by hand. I don't care what other people do. Unless your writing is illegible, please type.

[Bunburryist]

IMHO, the primary benefit of handwriting is that it is slower than typing and that's makes a person more reflective before they commit something to words.

Regarding the reflection aspect, there's a theory along that same vein that when we write by hand, since we write words as a whole (at least when we write cursive) and not one letter at a time, there is some kind of mental connection to the act of writing that is not there when keyboarding.

Here's a link for anyone interested.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...095458.htm

[Homeless Nutter]

I hate handwriting. Always have. It was the one thing I had trouble with in school - apart from social interaction, I suppose. I had no problems reading - I taught myself to read when I was ~5 years old, out of sheer boredom - and no shortage of creativity, memory or manual dexterity, so in my personal experience ability to write doesn't seem to correlate with those other traits. The fact, that I found learning easy, just by listening in class and reading books, definitely contributed to me never developing any sort of discipline when it came to hand-writing, as I had little need for making notes, therefore writing things down seemed like a pointless chore. And I was good enough a student for the majority of my teachers to put up with my horrid handwriting (unfortunately I didn't have access to a computer, or a word processor until I was an adult).

I just don't seem to have the patience for it. No matter how intent I am on writing clearly I quickly get frustrated by my hand's inability to keep up with my train of thoughts, which causes my writing to become more and more erratic and indecipherable, as I try to speed up the process, within few paragraphs essentially turning into angry, caricatural - practically sarcastic - squiggles, with no hope of ever being read by anyone, even myself. Which - of course - makes the activity the futile, pointless chore I always considered it to be.

I'd say typing is the best invention since sliced bread, but f*ck that - I can slice bread just fine, thank you very much. Whereas being able to write quickly and clearly with almost no effort, as well as to read other people's works and messages encoded in the same unified fashion - that's a huge improvement in human communication, however you look at it.