Learning how to Type in the 1990’s
My response to Typing Class
I wanted to be either a novelist or a newspaper reporter when I was younger, so back in the early 1990’s it made sense that I would want to know how to type. By the time I was in high school, I had learned how to type on my mom’s typewriter and the school’s computers using the old “hunt and peck” method, but of course that was never as efficient as actually knowing how to type.
Even though it was the age of computers, typing was taught using electric IBM typewriters. These were old machines even back then. I remember at least one of them frying and blowing smoke in the middle of class.
It was the best elective class that I took during high school, and safe to say that it’s a skill I’ve been using almost every single day of my life.
Reflecting on the differences between now and then, I think it’s important to note how much has changed. Back then, typing was a “business” skill. Now, I can’t think of any reason why somebody wouldn’t find a need to use a computer or type on a keyboard.
This is also where my age will start to show, because eventually we will reach a point where we are talking to our computers. This is already happening via systems like Siri on the iPhone. Voice input is great for short notes or commands, but I don’t know that I would ever be comfortable dictating an entire article or story into a computer. It would just take a lot of the creative process which occurs when I set my fingers down to the keyboard and then begin to type the words as fast as I can think them. And, can you imagine editing your work using only verbal commands?
“Star Trek” made voice recognition seem cool because you never saw Captain Kirk pause to think about what he was going to say next, stop the recording and revise what he had just said. Everything seemed to be captured in just one take. Trust me, in real life technology doesn’t work like that. Even if it did, I’d still prefer to type.
What was your experience like in typing class? Or, did you teach yourself how to type? Respond below.
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Originally published at docs.google.com.
