write by hand vs. keyboarding....XYZ PDQ LOL XO

[Kevin]

OMG it is not!

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Never heard of keyboarding before, I guess that's what the kids call typing. For some reason I took typing in summer school when I was 15 (it wasn't required). I have no idea why. I've always been good at it and I type about 70 wpm. I do still write longhand occasionally; if I'm reading a book and want to make notes, I keep a pad of paper handy. I write out to-do lists and grocery lists. Threat letters, ransom demands, etc.

[Anthony]

Some people, like Mozart, can sit down and write a piece from beginning to end, without altering it, and just send it off to the publishers. For such people, a pen is ideal. Others, like Beethoven, make endless changes. Here the computer is handy.
I wish I were like Mozart, but must settle for being like Beethoven (only not so good and in prose).

[RandomAnthony]

They call it keyboarding now, LG, because most of these crazy kids have never seen a typewriter. It's like when I say I'm going to "tape" a show and my son points out that there is no tape in a DVR...

[ms.petra]

I'm an oddball I guess because I still love to write and receive letters written longhand. I guess too much Jane Austen/Bronte and those period movies with the love letters being sent across the moor. There is just an intimacy in an actual letter or hand written note. Saving certain ones tied with a ribbon or in a shoebox. I still send actual Christmas cards and I write in them, not a dreaded holiday form letter. People love to get a letter even more today, because it is less common. I have a young girl on my route who is having her Bat Mitzvah next month and she is eagerly awaiting her RSVP's every day. Kids love receiving a postcard from a family members trip and the elderly like getting a letter period. When was the last time you sat down and composed a letter people? If you are married or in a relationship, how about a little love note or letter to your partner. I have sent my daughter several cards with notes since she has been away at school even though we talk on the phone almost every day. OK, now I am rambling but anyway you all get my point - I like letters!

[Jonathan]

I doubt the verb "to type" will completely disappear, even though the typewriter is mostly a thing of the past. We still "dial" numbers on a phone even though phones no longer have dials.

Which reminds me, I was at the New York Public Library a year or two ago and needed to use a pay phone because I had forgotten my cell. They still have a bank of wood-paneled phone booths on the ground floor of the NYPL with (at that time) rotary pay phones. I actually had to stare at the dial and think for a moment about how to work it. Couldn't remember the last time I used one.

Anyway, I happened to be at the library last week and noticed that they finally switched over to touch-tone phones. Sad in a way, but probably necessary.

[RandomAnthony]

That's a great pic, Jonathan. The fact they still have pay phones is interesting enough for me. I'd like my kids to see that and stand in a phone booth. I don't know where the nearest coin-operated phone is located. Question...where's the nearest coin-operated phone to everyone?

[Félix]

Back in the late 90s, when I was traveling extensively as a business consultant, the most common way to communicate in airport terminals was pay phones. I remember searching desperately for one that wasn't being used so I could check in with clients and voicemail.

These days pay phone availability hardly scratches the surface of my consciousness, what with having a smart blackberry semi-permanently attached to my hip.

[Jonathan]

We still have plenty of street phones in New York, but they're mostly just advertising kiosks at this point:



But there are still a few old timers kicking around, like this one about ten blocks north of where I live:

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I can't think of an outdoor payphone anywhere in Chicago. They are now removing all payphones from CTA (public transit) stations. I tried to use one a couple years ago - needed to call the friend who was picking me up at the other end and didn't have a cell with me. I didn't realize until it was too late that the CTA payphones only worked for collect calls. My friend ended up taking the call, which cost her $10 for about 25 seconds. Nice scam. Another time I knew there was a bank of payphones in one of the downtown hotels, went in and tried to use them - none of them worked. I still see payphones in airports - I assume they work?

[Jan]

>>When was the last time you sat down and composed a letter <<

Last night, as a matter of fact. But I keyboarded it. (computer) My handwriting is terrible so I prefer writing letters on the computer and hand signing them before posting them. I usually make notes like this in greeting card form. I put a picture on the front, with the message inside.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I used to be a huge letter writer. I was constantly writing letters, by hand. Long, detailed letters. Then email was invented. Also relationships change, people get older, and for some reason it doesn't seem as critical to be laying out one's thoughts and feelings in long missives. There's no reason why that should be so; it wasn't in earlier eras. I just feel like it is so in this era.

[Sarah]

That's what I love about shebangs -- fun mail! Everything else in the mail is usually bills.