Check out Deborah’s Task 4 here.

Deborah chose to physically write out her fourth task like how we used to back in high school- a good old 500 word essay/story. She wrote a little bit about herself and talked about her academic journey in the mid to late 80’s when the technology was different.

Although I did not do the fourth task, I linked Deborah’s post because it made me realize how we as a society have mostly transitioned from physical handwriting to typing on computers and phones for the majority of our communication. I started to question when the last time I wrote anything on paper was, and it was just towards the end of last year in November when I took notes in my notebook for my first day of my new job. Even then, I only chose to handwrite it because I figured it would be rude to have my phone out while I was being trained, even if it was for notes.

Otherwise, I am typing on my physical keyboards or touchscreen ones for every other form of communication- messaging my friends, my family, or searching things on the internet. I am so thankful that I grew up learning how to type properly and having access to computers. I see how older generations type with only their index or a few fingers and it hurts to watch because it is so inefficient. Also, the world moves so quickly now that I feel that you would be left behind if you cannot type quickly or do not have fine “digital” motor skills.

Along with this transition to mostly typing, we lose the personalization of our handwriting when conveying our messages. We lost the authenticity of the words that we write when messaging others, as these messages can be instantly screenshotted or copied and pasted and sent to someone else. We struggle to spell words properly and use correct grammar without autocorrect and tools like Grammarly. All of this text technology inherently changes our language and communication, and handwriting (especially cursive) is becoming less and less valued in our society. Would we ever fully transition away from handwriting? I think not, as there are some cases where handwriting is quicker and easier- like quickly writing down directions for a stranger. But then again, can’t they just use Google Maps?