Handwriting versus typewriting (Part I)

Handwriting versus typewriting

Part I: Paper

Since this is a class about writing, I will start my first blog about Technocritism about the differences between writing by and hand versus typing on a computer.

Both the paper technology and the computing technologies have been evolving for thousands of years. From what we now paper the first kind of paper started about 3500 BCE, and but wasn’t mass produced until the 1700s. The personal computer had a similar history. The earliest evidence of binary code was found in the ancient chinese text of I Ching which was dated around 2800 BCE, but the modern personal computer wasn’t invented till the 1970s. Both have made significant advancements for mankind, is one better than the other?

Let’s look at paper first since it is the first technology that most of us were exposed to. It may seem less formal and more intimate, for the reason that it is understood that when you write by hand it is most likely not going to end up being a final draft. Give us the ability to just play and free to “write badly” and doodle to convey a different sense of emotions sometimes hard to express with written words without considerable cognitive planning. Reading a handwritten journal will give most people a sense of intimacy that is beyond what is actually written. Writing with paper has a sense of humanity that thus far the the computer have not being able to replicate.

However, writing by hand has its... difficulties, especially living in today modern society. Writing by hand has is changes mainly i believe with speed. I am able to type faster than my hand can write, but that is not what I mean by speed. What I mean by speed is the ability to save, re-write in different ways, to share with a group, checking spelling and to make a back up is very time consuming. Those are all very important capabilities that we need, forcing us to turn to computers for the solution to the problems with writing.