These days, virtually all of our personal communication is performed digitally or over the phone. We type emails, compose tweets, blurt out status updates, spit out instant messages, make phone calls… and not a single bit of it is handwritten.
Of course, we might make notes or lists for ourselves — but increasingly, even they’re replaced by a digital jotter on our phones. This weekend, The Guardian ran a thought-provoking article about the decline of handwriting. Philip Hensher writes:
About six months ago, I realised that I had no idea what the handwriting of a good friend of mine looked like. I had known him for over a decade, but somehow we had never communicated using handwritten notes. He had left voice messages for me, emailed me, sent text messages galore. But I don’t think I had ever had a letter from him written by hand, a postcard from his holidays, a reminder of something pushed through my letter box. I had no idea whether his handwriting was bold or crabbed, sloping or upright, italic or rounded, elegant or slapdash.
And hell, he makes a point I can relate to. But is handwriting dead to you? Can you live without it? Or do you miss the romance of handwritten notes? [Guardian]
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