Laptops vs. Typewriters
When I was in high school, my mother insisted that I take 2 years of typing and 1 year of shorthand classes. I hated it! I told myself there was no way that I would ever have the type of job that required me to sit down and type all day, let alone take dication! I wasn’t very good at it either. I was super fast, but very inaccurate - I still joke that I type 60 words a minute with 59 mistakes.
Of course, now I’m very grateful that I did what my mother told me to do, because as a writer, I spend a huge amount of time doing exactly what I thought I’d never do - tap away on a key board all day.
This is a tribute then to the old typewriter and today’s notebook or laptop computers. (Pictured below is a Dell notebook very similar to one I own). Since I was an English major, my parents gave me an electric typewriter as a graduation present when I got my AA degree. My roommates were so impressed when I moved into the dorm with this high-tech piece of equipment. They begged me to allow them to use it on occassion for reports and such.
Years later, now as a returning college student, it amazes me at how many kids (hey, I’m like 20 years old than them so I can call them kids) have their own laptop computers. You see them all over campus, in the coffee shop, bookstore, and library.
May 9th, 2006 at 9:06 am
I remember the old electric typewriter and watching the keys go *thwack* onto the paper. It was better than my Grandma’s old manual typewriter, because you didn’t have to push the keys so hard.
And the electric typewriters we had in highschool typing class were state of the art at the time- they had the lcd display to show you the last line you’d typed before it actually typed onto the paper. If you were quick with the backspace key, you could edit your own typos before they hit paper. :D
I have to say after using old typewriters, old word processors, new typewriters, pc’s and laptops, that I am completely addicted to the modern toys. I’ve got a handy-dandy Toshiba laptop, and -love it-.
May 10th, 2006 at 7:16 am
We’ve been enjoying our dell wireless Dell, but I have to admit I’m starting to get George Jettson fingers!