Do you know how to touch type, and did you learn it in school?
5With everything sporting a keyboard these days, I’m wondering if they still teach touch typing or if most of these younger people ‘hunt and peck’.
I took typing…and have even used the old manual typewriters that would probably break the young, tender wrists of the iPhone set today, though in school we used electric.
Did you take touch typing, and if not, how do you type?
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If anything, they’d probably focus more now on thumb typing as a backup for when voice to text fails. It also facilitates reflex training for game console controllers. The real keyboard touching typically only happens during occasional PC gaming and then it’s only a few specific keys.
KuoH
They have ‘keyboard’ class instead of typing. I took typing and shorthand classes way back in the 1970! My grandson didn’t even have penmanship or cursive writing lessons in school. We homeschooled him on those. Telling him there could be a solar flare the wrecks the internet and power outages, you might need the skill to communicate in the future. He has beautiful handwriting now!
@jkawaguchi we will had cursive in the late 90s. With the lines/middle dotted line. All it’s useful for is being able to decipher my grandma’s birthday cards though. Lol. No offense.
Block writing is fine/easier for most people to read even as sloppy as mine is. Admittedly slower/less fluid when you’re practiced at cursive.
@jkawaguchi @unksol the cursive is dead. See below. But typing made my life for 40 years I had no idea that was coming.
typing class coupled with early messaging via AOL made older millennials perhaps the last cohort of great typists.
DON’T ASK ME TO DO ANYTHING WITH MY STUPID THUMBS ON A TOUCHSCREEN, THOUGH
@jouest eh hem. The term is “elder millennial”
I did have a Samsung blackjack 2 as my first smartphone. And a girl friend. So for that brief period before android/iOS I was good at thumb typing.
I guess I was even pretty quick at T9… And that was absolutely awful
@jouest took typing while aol messaging all night, I use to dream of that damn keyboard
@unksol how about iPhones just introduced T9 compatibility, like…last update. people apparently swear by it. (these people are wrong. we were there when the dark magic was written.)
@jouest really?!? Someone has committed a crime. That was on a Nokia in a holster cause it was too fat for a pocket with like a 2Mp camera. And texts cost multiples of cents.
T9 only worked with buttons and can stay on the other side of the river styx
We had some Casper the friendly ghost typing program in middle school in the computer lab.
Pentium 2 slot 1s I believe in that lab. I spent a couple weeks in the summer unboxing/setting up/installing windows 98. Assembling desk/making cat5 cables. Basically the entire lab. My mother was the school nurse and she had to go in a few weeks early for yearly stuff. I’d been randomly helping the teachers before we even had a computer at home and were still using a typewriter for homework. So the only IT guy we had let me tag along and have some fun lol. We tried to convince him to let us build them ourselves from parts but got shot down.
IDK with kids in the last …4 years? They probably just have chat GPT do it for them. I can’t read many of the keys on my board because I’ve had it for 15 years and I’m constantly writing SQL on the fly during meetings/coding. Some of the keys have literal groves.
Troy cat got water on it a year or two ago and it through me off for a while because the wireless backup version of the same keyboard had a slightly different curve to it. Then she got water on that one but id disassembled the wired one and it worked again l lol. Still need to put the wireless back together and see if it works.
@unksol correction not Casper just a ghost
https://www.sierrachest.com/index.php?a=g&id=429&fld=g&gconf=1
@unksol How funny!
@unksol gosh, youngster… We had Mavis Beacon on Apple IIs in middle school, but I think typing class was still on typewriters at the time. Mrs. Rubenstein Brown taught us touch typing one “alphabet” at a time. As in “today, class, the alphabets we are going to learn are R and E”.
I got my first Pentium early in college (I think I arrived at school with a 386sx). Back when Computer Shopper was almost as thick as the yellow pages and building computers was something you did even if you weren’t building a gaming rig.
@djslack I mean since you’re asking for another essay… You’ve definitely got probably a decade. but I was also using my mom’s typewriter in elementary/middle school. Certainly finger pecking though. And we were pulling out shelved 486s to lan game Age of Empires in a friends basement sometimes
As far as school we had some apples early in later elementary but like one per classroom and usually one classroom per grade. Can’t teach typing on that one computer.
We did play some sim ant after hours cause my mom did after school care. Basically babysitting for the kids whose parents had to work/couldn’t get a ride at 3pm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimAnt
That submarine math game they’d sometimes let the nerds hangout together and play instead of lunch/recess if your teacher was cool.
I think
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Neptune_(video_game)
And actually… I think the most early typing use case I had was the libraries orange text terminals with mechanical keyboards. Because wed go at least once a week to a rotating set of like 4 branches and I had a list of series I wanted to check for new books and had to do it fast because there were a lot.
A computer was not a priority though. Our first home computer was an AMD K6 Compaq from a black Friday deal. Which took a lot of convincing. And I was maybe 15?
And free AOL disks or NetZero 40 hours a month for banner ads. I think dad used it mostly to find/reserve books from the library.
Got a little bit of the first PC medal of honor in with a friend now and then.
My first PC was pricewatch.com stuff. Just because they had all the filter options and we could get on the schools T1 line and actually search for things. I did grab a noname “500W” PSU with no fans for $20 for the first one. Cause it doesn’t draw 500 Watts so it’s not important right? I believe an Athlon XP
Thankfully it never blew up lol.
And this AI/oligarch/social media dystopia coming for us can go eat a dick.
Also on a phone it’s swype/auto correct/single finger for abnormal stuff but. That’s a whole different thing
Boomer here - I never took a typing class (and I had no computer keyboards available until college). But my older sister had a typewriter and some typing textbooks from her classes, so I borrowed them and self-taught. I am no speed typist, but I survived over 40 years of professional software development with only the occasional glances at the keyboard.
@macromeh Another boomer here. The last time I remember touch typing being taught in school was when I was in senior high in the 70s. My school system had three study tracks in high school: college prep, business, and general studies. In the business program, touch typing was still taught… on typewriters. The closest I ever have gotten to touch typing is using mostly only the index and middle fingers on both hands. It’s been about 50 years since I started doing that and I think I’m pretty fast. My mom, around age 90, can and still does touch typing from her many years as a secretary. She could and maybe still can even write (Gregg?) shorthand.
I took typing in 11th grade using typewriters because I wanted to be able to touch type… I took it as an elective and knew it would be useful because even though it was the late 80’s - I was well aware of computers and keyboards… so yes I touch type and use the little raised markers to feel where my index fingers should go. Of course I can read and write cursive handwriting as well - and use my thumbs or index fingers on my phone…
I have a group of friends and we play jackbox games and one of the games utilizes dictation and I always have the most words - I’m not the fastest typist but I’m pretty accurate with my strokes
@shells it does feel good to get the rythm going. Because all my important typing is code/queris. I’m very fast at that even with some backspace cause that just happens and most of what I’m typing are not words.
I wonder how reading impacts this? By definition that has to impact spelling/writing. I thought English course was a complete waste of time in the 90s. As I was reading dozens of books a year in elementary school. I’m starting to think it should be required…
Nevermind we used to get personal pan pizzas lol
@shells @unksol BOOK IT!!!
@shells @yakkoTDI lol I read dune which may have been the thickest fiction book our library had. I don’t really read anymore which… IDK. I need to get back into some series. I don’t game anymore. Need to pick up a good series and reset.
Messing around with C64, friend of a friend could touch type and it made him look like some kind of computer wizard. Mostly because of that, took a typing class in HS on IBM electrics. Really happy i did that, or i’d probably still hunt and peck today. (But i still look down for numbers/number pad.)
Really annoying when keyboards have only the tiniest vestigial bump on the home keys.
@walarney
Yep. And most people have no idea why they’re even there.
On an IBM selectric. On the other hand my daughter took keyboarding. She didn’t want to I told her she had to. By the time she got to college she was thankful. By the time she had to write a formal research paper she was doubly thankful
@Cerridwyn Oooh! A Seletric! I wanted one of those, but instead I took my portable non-electric one to college to write papers with.
@ItalianScallion I didn’t have a selectric the school had them. I’m not sure how cuz they were bloody expensive back then and it wasn’t too rich School district. I did have a dirt cheap bought on clearance electric typewriter I took to college
@Cerridwyn @ItalianScallion The selectric with the ball thing? Most incredible engineering of the day.
I did have a computer printer with a “daisy wheel.” I would write up a class report and it would take about 20 minutes to print but it looked nice.
@Cerridwyn I wouldn’t be surprised if IBM either donated Selectrics or offered a very good discount to school systems. How better to sell Selectrics than to put them in the hands of students who learn to love them and then, when they go out and get job involving typing, lobby their employer to buy them.
@ItalianScallion that is what Apple did with the original Apple computer
@ItalianScallion @pmarin I can remember an earlier job. My first job in home health. Where when we started to computerize in the early 90s, we got both a daisy wheel printer and dot matrix printers. The daisy wheel printer where she is for really specific things. Most of the day-to-day stuff use the dot matrix
@Cerridwyn @ItalianScallion Yeah I can’t lie, the print quality on a daisy wheel or Selectric is so far beyond what people experience now. Ideally on good 24lb paper. “Kids these days” have never experienced it. Kind of like re-discovering vinyl records.
@Cerridwyn @ItalianScallion @pmarin what is this “print” function you mention?
@Cerridwyn @ItalianScallion @pmarin we had both a dot matrix and some sort of electric ball style type writer across the hall from my mom’s office for the faculty. this was right when they were all getting basic computers but not print options. Maybe 94 or 95. So I was 10
I have no idea what typewriter it was but that very snappy feeling with the electric was definitely fun.
The dot marix was another interesting thing. Mid 90s but a small private school so. Not the newest stuff.
/youtube ncis hacking
I took typing in high school, but never achieved proficiency with “touch typing”. I’ve been multifinger non-touch ever since. A temp agency measured me at 28wpm on a keyboard once, with loads of backspace and no errors when I was done. That last factor was what actually impressed the lady running the office; she said that it was way too common for candidates to simply tap blithely along and assume that their fingers always went where they were supposed to, and that they typed what was on the sample document accurately.
My current speed is less than what it used to be.
@werehatrack I bet I could still match my high school WPM maybe subtracting a few % for age. But so used to pressing on iPads (as I am now) reflexes might be degraded.
@werehatrack backspace is valid. I just don’t actually look for the key/type to a script. I’m just typing what’s in my head and looking at the screen so if it comes out wrong backspace and reinput.
I’m not sure what use WPM would be anymore. We probably don’t need manual data entry anymore? Like those jobs keying in written notes.
At least for block text that scanners can handle and new data would be digital anyway
There must be some market for people who can parse cursive/old English/dialects quickly and type it
@unksol
The library of Congress is currently doing a crowdsourced transcription of cursive manuscripts in their collections to be able to digitalize them.
So my story is that in high school at like 16 years old my high school counselor said you should take typing! I was like what? We had to use manual typewriters to build response and muscles in our hands. I thought it was silly though I did get to sit next to a girl named Pam that I was glad to see every day (nothing beyond that). ‘Cause we had our assigned seats and typewriters. I think I was about 30WPM.
Then fast-forward I was in a Silicon-Valley thing but most things were done by keyboard. No mouse/touchscreen for our system yet. We could do a lot but all by keyboard. And CTRL+. I had to do a demo for a customer, and he kept asking can you make it do this? What about doing that? So this went on for a while. I wanted it to look easy. I did type really fast.
Maybe too easy in retrospect.
The potential customer left with “your system is very good, but I can’t type that fast.”
@pmarin lol we are still running HPUX. via putty. Going to linux. But most batch systems in my area of experience are still Linux. Winscp/notepad++ to edit files instead of vi. I’ll admit I’m not great at vi/vim cause I don’t use it much
Yes there’s .net components now and we use visual studio/tfs for source control. But using the terminal interface is still extremely relevant
Mom forced us to take typing in 7th grade. She said we had to test at 32 words a minute before we could bail. I hit that 2/3 of the way through the semester and immediately dropped it. Surprisingly I was given a B in the class I quit going to when I hit criteria. I guess they didn’t drop me as I was passing when I used my middle fingers to type “f u c k t h i s” (well not really typing that with middle fingers as I didn’t even know what the middle finger meant and hadn’t heard the word fuck yet. I was a sheltered preacher’s kid (I did know hell and damn as dad used that at home all the time as I told the Sunday School teacher when I was 4 and he had been there one week. Opps.
)… (calling @carl699 - fuck alert)
I did learn in junior high but I was not great. After that I didn’t type for so long I forgot how to touch type. I never relearned. I have my own strange typing method that works pretty good for me.
Mavis Beacon taught me how to type.
@zhicks1987
I set up the school typing lab where my wife taught at a private school with a bunch of older almost useless computers (set up running Linux) that were still perfectly adequate to run Mavis Beacon and teach typing skills. I believe to this day that was a blessing for those kids.
In high school my (cursive) handwriting was so bad I decided I needed to learn to type so took a class at the local college. One of my best decisions ever…
Took it in JR high on an electric typewriter, but had an old manual Royal at home that I practiced on.
FF to college w my first computer and Ms Mavis Beacon, she helped me get my WPM somewhere between 90-100 WPM. My only issue is I type hard, so I tend to wear out keyboards.
@tinamarie1974 have you tried a mechanical switch keyboard? They have varying levels of pressure requirements so you can kinda find the switch you like. I’ve never worn out a membrane keyboard but the key faces are definitely showing use
@unksol Ive never heard of it, but Ill check it out. Thanks!
@tinamarie1974 I’ve never bought one but have some old IBM ones. It is a rabbit hole. And I just keep using what I am used to till they stop making it…
Some general info
https://www.keychron.com/blogs/news/mechanical-switches-color-list
My high school typing class (80s) the typewriters didn’t have letters on the keys so we were forced to learn by touch. I learned ten key by touch working in a grocery store in the dark ages before scanners.
@ironcheftoni
Always thought it was uber-weird that a calculator has an inverse pattern from a phone. What’s that about?
It was nice to switch to computers as we had to turn in papers using non-erasable typing paper with only 3 typos on a page. I think it took me longer to meet the typo criteria than to actually write the paper to begin with. I bought a 128K mac as the only choices back then were an apple 2e, an IBM PC junior and the mac. Best choice ever at the time. Worth every penny of the school loan to pay for it. And spell check was the icing on the cake (well along with copy/paste to reorganize the paper without having to retype the entire thing. I gained back so much time with a computer rather than my manual typewriter.
I do think with AI fewer and fewer kids are going to have decent typing skills as they dictate - although right now they have to proof read carefully due to all the dictation mistakes AI makes.
@Kidsandliz ouch at least white out was allowed. And I was only in elementary when we only had a type writer. But yea. I trashed/wadded up some pages.
Do kids know whiteout existed?
@unksol We could only use white out on three mistakes. Stupidest thing ever.
@Kidsandliz @unksol You got me curious about whether Wite-Out is still being sold. Surprisingly, it (and Liquid Paper) are doing well! https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/who-still-buys-wite-out-and-why/567311/?gift=CTYo0cVLRGtf8xO4JcC49fmtTY02CCayWguvkJ5-17M&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh interesting article. I knew it was still being made. More do kids know/who is buying it. They do mention it’s a small batch product in there. And
“Who’s still buying these things? All the best answers are mostly conjecture. AdWeek suggested that sales might be buoyed by artists using fluid as paint. A Bic spokesperson pointed to a series of weird and entertaining interactive YouTube ads for Tipp-Ex in Europe, and said that Wite-Out is launching “colored dispensers that will appeal to younger consumers.””
@Kidsandliz @unksol It sounds like it’s being used on handwritten things, which is also why the tinted ones are popular.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh yeah but isn’t it just paint then? It must have some other useful quality. Maybe fast drying?
@Kidsandliz @unksol Probably. And conveniently packaged with the little applicator.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @unksol
My wife still uses the roll on style “wite-out” product (or a knockoff version) to correct handwritten notes that she writes to some of her students during ACT prep. She also uses it on the printed calendar we have hanging on the fridge when our plans change etc… It has the benefit of being dry when you apply it so you can write over it immediately.
I can touch type, quite efficiently, the last time I tested my wpm I was in the mid 60s, it’s been a few years and probably decided since I no longer type in my day to day.
Back in elementary school we had Mario Teaches Typing which wasn’t really a good teaching tool.
Chat rooms and online gaming is what forced me to become more proficient and naturally transition into touch typing.
@metaphore
That’s what prompted both our kids to be way more proficient typers than I ever was.
Yes.
Yes
I can remember having a ?Smith Corona? Electric typewriter style word processor. You could actually see the last few lines you had typed and make corrections to it then at the end it would print it all out at one time. There were interchangeable discs to change the font style. It used a ribbon type transfer tape. This was back in the days when dot matrix units were your only computer printer options. The results from this were so much better looking.
I don’t remember ever having a typing class offered in school. I graduated high school in 2001 and computers were more affordable in homes when I was in jr high. We still wrote hand papers in high school bc not everybody had computers. It wasn’t until college that typed papers were mandatory.
@Star2236
HS class of '73. Typing was an elective but lots of females in that class. Guys did shop mostly. I was more of a nerd than a jock. Needless to say I was in typing. Even then I could see the
writingtyping on the wall. Served me well over the years in multiple careers.@chienfou
Maybe it was offered but I don’t remember. I took electric car for two years (we built an electric car, it was 3 classes rolled into a block- science, English and machines and metal). Needless to say I was the only girl in my class both years. That probably took some of my electives along with photography and ceramics. But I still have skills that neither of my brothers posses to this day and it’s definitely come in handy.
@Star2236
Almost 2 decades separate our experinces in HS.
Makes a BIG difference.
@chienfou @Star2236 Um, it’s been a while since I was in high school too (class of '75), but isn’t (2001-1973) closer to 30 years?
@macromeh @Star2236
right you are. I was doing the math from my anniversary!
Was typing a class? In my classes, at best there were awards for being a faster typist at “game X”, but nobody taught technique (technically the game did if you took the tutorial)
@pakopako
Yes. At one point it was a class…
@chienfou I was never a fan of Maevis Teaches Typing. House of the Dead Typing was so much better.
I took typing in 1985 as a high school freshman on actual typing machines. I was an ok touch typist. Then, I got World of Warcraft in 2006. Now I’m a fast, accurate typist.
One of my guildies started playing as a way to get control of his fingers back after developing Guillain-Barré syndrome. I knew him for years before he casually mentioned once that he was a dean of a medical school. Good times.
I took a typing class in high school, but I didn’t learn to touch type until years later, when I was hitting a lot of BBSes. I figured I was getting good enough, so I started looking at the screen. After than was going well, I started looking away.
I don’t use the standard method, but I use several fingers.