TECHNOLOGY

The typewriter lives on!

I now regularly hear experts in education and media gurus proclaim (or bewail) the technological trends of the last 5 to 10 years that, they claim, are returning our society to an audio- visual based culture, rather than the text/print culture that has created the civilized world ever since cuneiform, hieroglyphics and the alphabet. Gutenberg and Marshall McLuhan The Gutenberg Galaxy, are no longer relevant to our world’s future.

According to them, talk on cell phones has replaced writing letters, YouTube videos have supplanted manuals and books for enjoyment, and tablets will soon displace desktop PCs, Macs and laptops – ending the reign of the keyboard.

I am sure many kids today have no idea what a typewriter is or was, and may well have never seen one.  They know of keyboards on computers and laptops , but, so say  the pundits, will soon no longer need these archaic add ons as tablets and smart phones go well beyond the written/printed word.

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Yes, today’s youth are cell phone addicts and facebook and social media are how most young people spend their time: both free-time and even when in class or at work.

But Mankind’s love of writing is not going away.  It’s too fast and convenient, and a more or less ‘assured’ method of communicating one’s thoughts  – and kids know it. 

That is why text messaging has replaced cell phone chat and voice messages for most young people. They know their friends are not at their phones 24/7 and someone might  pretend not to have gotten a voice mail. But text messages are ‘guaranteed messaging’ that cannot be ignored.

The skyrocketing of Twitter is further proof of mankind’s love of and the power of the written word.  One tweet and you can sound off to almost everyone on the planet!  Granted 140 characxters does not allow for long ‘speeches’ and great detail, but they do force people to think, and write concisely and clearly.   Think epigram or haiku!

It is therefore noteworthy that Microsoft, in entering the computer hardware world decided to add a real keyboard to its tablet, the Surface.  Microsoft knows that a keyboard that is actually quick and easy to use cannot be replaced. 

And the reviving Research in Motion has just announced the January 30. 2013 launch of its newest BlackBerry handsets and BlackBerry 10 system.  RIM, after all, is the company that added a full QWERTY keyboard to a phone and made everyone’s phone typing oh so much faster.

 

So, typing and keyboards are not disappearing any time soon, if ever, and the crystal balls pundits have been using need a good cleaning.

 

 

P.S.   If you don’t know, the QWERTY keyboard, which gets its name from the first 5 letters at the top left of the letter keys, is not an intuitive or alphabetical layout and takes a fair bit of time to learn.  It was designed to SLOW DOWN typing because the original machines used long armed letter keys and if two keys were activated too closely together, the key arms would bind up and freeze.  The typist would need to stop and manually separate the key arms – and hope no damage resulted such as throwing off the alignment of a key either up or down, or sideways.

QWERTY layout was created to minimize such possibilities as its layout  separates most commonly used letters and allows more time between strokes for common words.

I had a professor who in the 1970s invented a better – i.e. faster – layout but manufacturers were not interested in ‘retraining the world’.

And so QWERTY rules forever!