Fewer and fewer people today write by hand using a pen or pencil.
What are the reasons for this?
Is this a positive or a negative development?
In the last decades, writing by hand has been gradually falling out of fashion. The main driver of this development is clearly modern technology. Despite a general appeal of the new way of writing, the use of various devices to replace handwriting is a change for the worse.
It is not difficult to see why very few people today opt for writing things by hand. Different gadgets, ranging from computers and laptops to tablets, now offer us an alternative to handwriting in many domains. Communication has been one such area where traditional letters have become redundant for correspondence. Instead, people now text or even call each other using different platforms to communicate. Similar changes have taken place in the world of education and work. Students and educators as well as workers and companies today have largely switched to digital media to organize their notes, keep records and create documents.
However, I believe that this is damaging on at least two grounds. First, it deprives children of the chance to fully develop their fine motor skills. While writing with a pen or pencil helps to form these essential skills, typing does not have this feature. Moreover, writing on such devices seriously limits people’s ability to express their feelings and thoughts more eloquently. This is perhaps because handwriting is inherently much slower and allows the writer to contemplate while putting their thoughts on paper. Hence, I strongly feel that the shift away from handwriting in favor of typing has serious costs to it.
In conclusion, the availability of modern technology has resulted in a widespread adoption of such tools as a substitute for writing by hand. Personally, I would argue that this change is the one we should not welcome as it leaves children with underdeveloped fine motor skills and more importantly, restricts our capacity for self-expression.
305 words
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#task2
What are the reasons for this?
Is this a positive or a negative development?
In the last decades, writing by hand has been gradually falling out of fashion. The main driver of this development is clearly modern technology. Despite a general appeal of the new way of writing, the use of various devices to replace handwriting is a change for the worse.
It is not difficult to see why very few people today opt for writing things by hand. Different gadgets, ranging from computers and laptops to tablets, now offer us an alternative to handwriting in many domains. Communication has been one such area where traditional letters have become redundant for correspondence. Instead, people now text or even call each other using different platforms to communicate. Similar changes have taken place in the world of education and work. Students and educators as well as workers and companies today have largely switched to digital media to organize their notes, keep records and create documents.
However, I believe that this is damaging on at least two grounds. First, it deprives children of the chance to fully develop their fine motor skills. While writing with a pen or pencil helps to form these essential skills, typing does not have this feature. Moreover, writing on such devices seriously limits people’s ability to express their feelings and thoughts more eloquently. This is perhaps because handwriting is inherently much slower and allows the writer to contemplate while putting their thoughts on paper. Hence, I strongly feel that the shift away from handwriting in favor of typing has serious costs to it.
In conclusion, the availability of modern technology has resulted in a widespread adoption of such tools as a substitute for writing by hand. Personally, I would argue that this change is the one we should not welcome as it leaves children with underdeveloped fine motor skills and more importantly, restricts our capacity for self-expression.
305 words
#classwork
#task2