Why Don’t Users Read? over at Blankenthoughts was talking about how many people do not read instructions when it comes to computer usage.
I agree with this blogger about how people don’t read directions these days. I have to also agree that it seems handwriting is a thing of the past. I don’t fully know if it’s due to computers having taken over much of what we used to do by pen.
I didn’t click on the NY Times article simply because something told me that if it’s at least a month old, it won’t come up for the pulic anymore. However, Blankenthoughts has inspired me to post something of my own on the topic.
America is just plain dumb and lazy when it comes to doing things for ourselves. And we are sloppy writers who depend on computers.
Seems going through one or two paragraphs about how to perform a task is more daunting than actually trying to hack it out yourself, only to spend a longer amount of time going back to read them, or worse, trying to get someone to help you.
As far as the decline of handwriting, I think it is because public schools are not even teaching penmanship anymore. Ask any kid under 20, if they even heard the word, ‘penmanship’. Chances are likely they haven’t.
I don’t know if it’s because of the gradual onset of technology that replaces many things, or if it’s because we are all so busy, many households having 2 adults working outside of the home and kids taking on so many extracurricular activities but I think that theory is bullshit, on both counts.
As for handwriting, I think that if you told a class of 33 students they had to turn in a 20 page paper on loose-leaf notebook sheets, they ought to be able to do it. This seems like something that does not happen today, because of schools neccessitating a computer for each child in school. No gawd-dang wonder my nephew turns up at my place with a boat load of various and sundry order forms for fundraiser junk, not more than a week after school opens, ever year.
I say that if teachers think each child needs a computer they are full of it. Microsoft Word is not that hard to learn and if you want to have a vocation in computers, take that shit as an elective or go off and study them in college, like the rest of us had to. Computer skills have been more and more of a prerequisite for jobs in the last couple of decades but these things can be learned through the use of libraries, community education courses and the like.
As for my personal experience in these areas…
I was taught penmanship in school, and I retain a modicum of what I learned. Mine handwriting is a blend of print and cursive, which–depending on the day–resembles a bit of my mom’s or my dad’s hand. Tis kind of sloppy most of the time, but It looks good when I really make an effort, like with Christmas cards, and thank-you’s. However I’m proud of it. Not because it is great, but because it is mine. It’s a piece of my identity, something unique that no one else in the world can match. My parents both worked out of the home and I fondly recall having Mrs. Kunz holler, “Long, easy strokes! Next line is your ‘e’s! Ready?” over her record player with the soundtrack to Chariots of Fire playing on it.
I was in the Girl Scouts, volleyball, Indian Princess, and had many playmates and things to run off and do, but I still had time for homework and learning. So to say that we have no time to read directions and do homework and/or other tasks the right way the first time, so the excuse “too many activities” can’t be a major factor for the dwindling of our minds, either.
I think that we don’t take the time to take a deep breath and read directions because of the fact that we can all be reachable at any time, and virtually anwhere (advent of cell phones), we mess around on the computer too much (computers more widely available in our homes, and the advent of the internet), and we want to spend lots of time in front of the TV (too many cable channels, TIVO, DVD mania, etc.).
And I think that we don’t handwrite enough because many things don’t require it, such as e-mail, faxing, word processing, and text-messaging, thus making it very easy for schools to erase handwriting, penmanship, and writing in general, from curriculums across the country.
It’s because we are just plain lazy.
Same day, different year..
Other posts on this day:
- Adventures at the public library – 2000