Question of the day: Saturday August 3

Hello everyone! 

I've just found I've needed to write to a neighbour about a problem. 

I did the letter in Word and was going to print it out on some nice paper, but a friend said it would be much nicer if I hand-wrote it. 

Once I wouldn't have thought twice about writing it out.

So my question is:

Is hand-writing a dying art? 

I do think handwriting is a dying art; children as young as five are typing on their iPad or laptop computer.

I type much faster than I write.

That said I think notes of condolences and apologies should be handwritten, not typed.  I think typed letters, notes set a more formal tone and have the potential to be more adversarial.

And one should consider how legible their handwriting is (think doctors....).

I read that some schools were going to discontinue cursive writing. And I don't agree at all.

As Ritz mentioned, things like sympathy cards should be handwritten. Always. Thank you notes should be handwritten, too.

Based on some recent reports (including a recent trial in the USA) it does appear so. As someone who did calligraphy and worked on a readable hand, I am dismayed.

I don't like my handwriting so I type most things out except Christmas cards, birthday cards and sympathy cards.  Typing is easier but the world has become lazy due to technology and I don't like it.  The kids NEED to learn to write, because one day... there may not be electricity, computers, laptops, etc.... It's a dying art but progress is encouraging it.

gemlady said:

 As someone who did calligraphy and worked on a readable hand, I am dismayed.

Click to expand...

Yes, me too.. especially at myself for my response to the need to write a 'dear neighbour' letter!

I really worked on my style of writing and gained a lot of pleasure from it.  To me it's another case of creativity succumbing to technology. 

How many of us remember how to do long division?

I do

However, I have never found a use for algebra in the real world.

I never liked cursive---good riddance! :tongue2: I have met far too many older people who can't print at all and their cursive has suffered with age/shaky hands, and you just can't read anything they write. Better to learn a good legible printing style, no reason to get fancy and scallopy.

But yes. I hardly ever write much by hand. There are still a lot of hand-addressed envelopes in the mail, but I wonder if the cards inside are handwritten?

I think it's a dying art. I myself love to write in print or cursive and to me it is calming. I know a lot of adults whom I've asked to write out the whole alphabet in cursive and they can't, they seem to forget two or three letters.

I'm all for technology and typing but as someone else stated, there might be a day when that stuff isn't around anymore.