I saw on the news the other day, that 1/3 or something parents think that children are losing Handwriting skills over typing stuff (Like writing pieces) on the computer too much.
So, what is your opinion on this contreversal issue?

I have no doubt it's true, but I don't see what the big deal is really. More and more work is being done on computers. The need to write anything by hand is pretty uncommon.

I still think the ability to hand write things is important to have, but I think it's not essential anymore.

I actually don't think that typing more has too much bearing on handwriting quality. I never used to type at all, I used one finger to pick out all the keys until 8th grade, but my handwriting has always sucked. Plus, I'm not that great a typist either, so I don't think that the two are directly related.

I don't really agree that it affects children/us much at all. We learn to write at a very young age, usually around 4 years old or so. Most children don't even begin taking typing classes until they are about 8 years old; at least, that's around the age that I started getting classes on typing from my school. We don't actually begin typing up essays and papers until we are in high school/secondary school, which is when we're 14 years old-ish. What I'm getting at is that we should already have developed (almost entirely) permanent handwriting skills by the time we are adults and that becoming a fast typist has no direct correlation with handwriting.

To me, it's like saying learning how to drive a car will make you a worse bicyclist. Well, riding a bike is something that pretty much sticks with you forever. You don't suddenly forget. Just my two cents, anyway.

I disagree with it affecting writing skills. My handwriting has always been horrible. Computers help by saving paper and making copies is a piece of cake, it also has spell check!!!

I definitely agree that it ruins hand writing skills. I use to have pretty good writing but now I've gone years with barely any writing and not my writing skills are absolute crap, I'm constantly having to scribble out stuff due to now writing out my letters properly. I guess I really don't care though, I hate writing anyway, don't have the patience for it, typing is so much faster.

I think that it's true.
Because I used to be really good at handwriting, but since I started doing almost everything with my keyboard, I'm not as good as I used to be.
So, on vacation I'll try to regain my handwriting skills(I hope so)...

Well, I'm going to bring up a different aspect to this discussion.

Ours is the first generation where nearly all our personal documents (letters, journals, etc) are stored digitally and transmitted that way a lot.

There is very little in the way of physical evidence that many of us exist. Almost all our records are digital now. Just a strange thing I think. There is going to be very little left of many of us to prove we existed.

geeogree: That's pretty scary and crazy to think about. Our entire lives are digital, and for some of us, most of our friends are online (almost as if they're digital as well). Someday most of us will probably own hardly anything except a single all in 1 device of some sort which does everything for us.

That's really scary guys!!!
I don't want to live a life like that...no matter how comfortable it would be!
I think that if we follow this way, soon we will waste all of our abilities, and that's pitty

I agree that it is scary, but addressing the topic...

I really think that computers lower student's abilities to write properly...

I, myself, could write REALLY well in cursive and now after a few years of using the computer a lot, I write really slowly and messily if I try to pick up speed .
Though, by practicing a lot, I have improved my writing over the past few months...

Well, I write the same as I did in kinder garden, lol. My writing is terrible to look at. Something I've noticed is that since about grade 9, my hand writing has been getting progressively worse and I occasionally make unconscious spelling errors, or share letters between words, for example instead of yellow white I write yellowhite by accident. While writing this, I realized I got facebook in grade 9. LOL, coincidence?

I think it's true because typing is faster than writing and it will always be easy to read and besides writing has been around longer than typing.

I think it is a bit true, my really bad handwriting has became worse when my typing skills improved, I think (maybe) with the internet, my handwriting is known to be "unreadable" even by myself, yet again, I am one of the fastest and best tapers in my class.

But I can say though, I think my handwriting being bad is due to how I hate to write and like things to be over with as soon as possible, meaning, I will write fast cursing bad handwriting.

But I can still write, and lot before my fingers get painful, 5 pages of something that, in the end, the teacher cannot read and that is strange, as I "hate" to write (YAY for training with the xbox video game controller a lot when I was young ).

That would depend how the question is meant. If it means children are spending more time on a computer than writing than I would say the answer is yes. We really shouldn't be so reliant on computers. What if the networks crash?

Geogree has a really scary point about the fact that there will be practically nothing for future people to remember us by if our hardrives and systems crash.
I find myself making lots of stupid mistakes when I write by hand as well. I am so used to having Word correct "i" and making it become "I" when writing papers (although I never need to use "I" in research or analytical responses, so this isn't a good example), that when I type on forums like this, I end up saying "i" and having to proofread back to avoid looking like I have no education. Anyways, it is a lot faster and easier to type out stuff on the computer. My hand starts cramping after 4 handwritten pages; I can type nearly indefinitely if I have enough to say.
Of course, the essays and answers that we have to write for our exams must be written by hand, so I have to have good enough handwriting for my teachers to understand what I am trying to say. I believe that I have bad handwriting simply because I have bad handwriting; I don't believe that my typing more has anything to do with it. However, I can understand how people could see that and it makes a lot of sense when I think about it.

I reckon that is what is happening, My handwriting used to nice and neat but nowadays i cant stand writing and it is scruffier, computers just a whole lot easier tbf.

Wouldn't doubt it, not only typing the computer but texting as well has a major influence. Its quite sad actually to think that the tread with most likely continue.

does it really matter if they are technology is increasing really fast soon everybody in the world will be typing so typing is probably more important then hand writing is right now

It depends on the child… I think technology is here to stay and that if it helps a child progress better by using a computer if they have problems hand writing there shouldn’t be a problem in utilizing a computer if it helps the child comprehend better.


I don’t think kids necessarily lose their skills by not hand writing on a regular basis but I think there needs to be more taken into account before one can say this is better over the other. As I said I think it all boils down to what an individual child needs and not an overall group of kids.