PEN-MAN-SHIP is going, but not dead yet!
From time to time, many people curious for new thing or new technology that has changed or shaped the new way of thinking and way of people’s living. No matter how brilliant and creative of technology, everyone will always welcome to satisfy or appreciate as the first day of apple have launched new iPhone or iPad to make complete changing technology for people in 21st century. Whether or not, here it is the thing about the historical act of writing that it is going to be promoted and supported by people in the future.
Though, over century, I personally admit that technology plays important role that everyone cannot live without whether print media or digital media. Surely, people tend to send message via email than necessity. However, the truth is, technology cannot compete over the historical style of writing — commonly recognized and done by pen or pencil. Even pen came long before the internet and other advanced technology — iPad or Apple watch, we should be satisfied it functional instrument that generates more than meaning. As once claimed by Nietszche of why should be writing: “our writing instruments contribute to our thoughts.”
There is another proven fact behind writing that many expert have made a same agreement that writing down with hand using can reach the goal more surely. According to de Cervantes Saavedra’s description that “The pen is the tongue of the soul; as are the thoughts engendered there, so will be the things written.” However, I quite surprise how the historical style of writing with pen or pencil or Penmanship — the art or skill of writing by hand — translated by dictionary.com helps people learn more effectively and efficiently than by typing.
Lately, I have found powerful campaign that many organization and people has been started to advocate and bring about the historical style of writing, rather than using other tools for encouraging good old-fashioned pen to note-taking.

Here, the first campaign that I found quite the most touching campaign developed by Pilot Pen — #HappyWriting campaign — which is part of cause-related penmanship campaign to support and encourage people to rediscover the passion to use pen for writing down memory and expressing personality. (Interactive, 2014) Pilot’s business invest in this kind of awareness-raising campaign with a reason to remind a customer about traditional handwriting and how the digital technology has enhanced the way of people’s living that people should not forget or neglect to put pen on paper for communicating with others. Later, the business successfully brought many of supporters in the UK to send this message with #HappyWriting to promote across social media platform.
Apart from above campaign, BIC, another brand of pen, also developed an advocacy campaign that strongly want to send a mission and encourage customer to celebrate handwriting and to become hand writing hero by coming up with video campaign called Fight For Your Write Campaign.
BIC believe that “writing is an important vehicle for communication and learning and it has countless benefits for students, such as helping kids become better readers, boosting their confidence levels and sparking their creativity.” (Domtar, 2016) Because of this reason, they have embraced the fact of how benefits for using handwriting, particularly for children.
By these two advocacy campaign, I can see a solid truth that there is no reason for the very act of writing to be faded or deleted out from cultural influence. It is still number one old-fashioned tool of helping develop powerful raising-awareness idea and campaign as well as linking and connecting people thought, creativity and knowledge that individual can freely express and explore their personality. No matter how many of new technologies are going to emerge and celebrate people’s live, I agree that the act of writing by using hand will still taking more important role than typing and being a tool-needed for people in every age, class and culture. And, a source of powerful tool like pen or pencil will be another interesting way of learning secret and consequently might transform the life of people in 21st century.
Therefore, before I go out from this blog, I would like to leave with interesting talk from Jake Weidmann who interest in exploring how pen or pencil — a common instrument can become the future of writing in the digital age by making connection with how we learn, think and carry our cultural heritage when the very act of writing is being rarely-used in high school.
References:
· Domtar. (2016). BIC Fight For Your Write Campaign Celebrates Handwriting. [online] Available at: https://newsroom.domtar.com/bic-fight-write-campaign-celebrates-benefits-handwriting/ [Accessed 27 Aug. 2017].
· YouTube. (2015). BIC Fight For Your Write Commercial — :60. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FF0nOVhrDw [Accessed 27 Aug. 2017].
· Interactive, B. (2014). Pilot Pen invests in HappyWriting campaign News | Dealer Support. [online] Dealersupport.co.uk. Available at: http://www.dealersupport.co.uk/news/products-and-services/marketing/Pilot-Pen-invests-in-HappyWriting-campaign [Accessed 27 Aug. 2017].
· YouTube. (2014). Why write? Penmanship for the 21st Century | Jake Weidmann | TEDxMileHigh. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85bqT904VWA [Accessed 27 Aug. 2017].
