I fancy myself a writer. In today’s world I really am just a typer (“typist” sounds too formal and professional) since when I physically use a pen, I can barely understand what my message is.
I am not one of the new generation who believes texting is “talking” and I don’t run to a computer calculator or cellphone to figure out basic math questions — believe it or not.
In meetings I'm known to take a crazy amount of notes because I'm paranoid I'll forget something or, worse yet, get it wrong. If needed, I'll hit record on my phone and capture audio if I feel the info is too important to mess up.
The problem with my handwritten notes seems to be getting worse. Depending on how quickly I jotted (maybe the better word is scribbled), the less likely I'm going to understand what I meant days or weeks later when I refer back.
Ditto when someone calls and I quickly grab a Post-In Note to jot down a phone number or date and time. When I finally go back to the little yellow square, I actually say aloud, “What the hell does that say?” as I try to decode it.
Writing — the ink/paper way — is a dying, well, art, though I never thought I'd consider printing or handwriting to be an art form.
I’ve also found that my hand cramps up after a short time of writing something now. Back in school, I would fire off pages and pages for a short story without stopping. I’d have that lump on my ring finger from the pressure of the pen on my skin. But the writing was so clean that nobody had to squint to read what I’d composed.
That’s just not the case anymore.
When word got around that schools in 45 U.S. states had eliminated cursive writing as part of their curriculum, I was saddened because in first and second grades I liked perfecting my penmanship — well, pencilmanship — on the thin grey paper with the dashed line between two solid ones. You know the paper I am talking about. Today’s kids probably have no idea.
Instead, young students are app’ing their way through class, quick with their fingers and the touch of a screen or press of a button.
Part of the fun I had as a kid was painting something in school and signing my name to it. You can’t really sign your picture with a tablet. Maybe there’s an app for that, but what do I know?
Then again, in an age when everybody is a writer thanks to blogs and web posting, and everybody is a broadcaster thanks to social media and YouTube, I shouldn’t be surprised that priorities in school are changing.
Are third-grade students already learning video editing and app downloading? (Not for nothing, I’d prefer my nieces and nephews learn how to work a pen/pencil any day – at least at that age.)