Feb 05 2008
The Quick Brown Fox
I was chatting online with Younger Dude the other night.
Younger Dude may be 65 but he has a computer and an online dating profile.
As we type back and forth I notice that our instant messaging resembles our actual conversations - a bit of a 25:1 ratio of my words to his.
Unlike our actual conversations, there are longer pauses between our exchanges. Plus, Younger Dude might even being “saying” less.
It then dawned on me - maybe Younger Dude doesn’t know how to type.
I typed, “Do you know how to type or do you hunt and peck?”
He responded, “hunt and peck.”
It got me thinking about typing. My mom is 67 and prior to her arthritis, typed like a fiend. Dang, was she fast! She took a typing course because that’s what women did in her day. I think she may even have taken shorthand.
I think my Dad hunts-and-pecks on the computer. I have an image of him hunched over the keyboard.
I took typing back in middle school because I was told that when I got to high school, we had to hand in single-spaced, typed essays. In fact, we were warned about how many essays we’d have to hand in.
So I took typing and learned how to type:
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”
because this sentence hit every key in the alphabet.
When it comes to knowing how to type, the skill seems optional for people of my generation and gender isn’t an issue. I know women who don’t know how to type and men who do.
Until I went back to school, I rarely used my typing skill and computers weren’t all that prevalent.
Now computers are a necessary part of our lives. Almost everyone has one.
I wonder if all the kids are taking typing in school.
How many of you know how to type?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I know how to type.
It all started at home. My mother purchased an Adam computer for me. This was my first venture into the computer age, aside from those little game gadgets (pre-Game Boy).
In elementary we had computer classes - same in junior high school. When I reached High School was when the in-depth learning began. I was a business major so I would have a computer class and a typing class (on typewriters).
What increased my learning of the keyboard and the speed to flow through all the papers I had to write was chat. Chatting online gave me the speed to qualify for the few jobs that I got during my younger years.
I do know how to type. Thank goodness otherwise I don’t know how I’d do my job!
I think that one of the biggest things that I learned in elementary school was typing skills. We had these old Apple computers that we practiced our typing on at least a couple of times a week. It definitely was one of the pertinent skills that I learned (besides a strong basis in the other subjects). To this day, I’m glad that we were taught that at a (relatively) young age.
I’m not sure what kind of skills the kids have nowadays. I’m assuming that a far greater number of them have learned how to type simply because it is part of their entertainment.
UT: We didn’t have computer classes when I was about 12 years old. I learned typing on a manual typewriter. We all had to do these exercises given in this blue book with a hard cover that served as its own stand. I think they still use that book to teach typing!
Typewriters are very different than keyboards - for one thing the rows of keys are on different levels! I kinda like the tapping sound and pick keyboard that have a good “touch” - keyboards without a bit of feedback seem weird to me.
Sounds like you had to take speedtests! I think I did a speedtest once for a job but can’t even recall why! I am not the most accurate typer but I know about my typos and actually start self-correcting (backspacing) as I type.
What is funny is that I am probably considered a fairly fast typer but I am NOTHING compared to what my mom could do. For today’s typing requirements, I am fine.
Derek: I am very glad to have learned how to type! Too bad I didn’t learn Chinese while I was at it! I’m with you on the kids these days - I would guess they’d learn it as a matter of course or be encouraged by their parents to learn. It’s also kinda cool to be able to “touch type” - it may not have been that “cool” in the past but “look ma, no looking!” might be thought of as cool now.
I don’t do too much online chatting. I only started using chat because Younger Dude is usually online.
You know, the same thought crossed my mind (that it’s too bad I didn’t learn Chinese when I was younger). It always seems to turn out later on in life that one’s parents do know best after all.
Yes, I can type. I think kids around here take “keyboarding” in the middle years, but our kids were home for that. We did “Garfield’s Typing Pal” lessons, which they enjoyed, but only one of the boys REALLY learned to type. Perhaps because he loves chat rooms and online gaming.
Practice makes perfect. My husband never took typing, but he is a computer guy, so he types way faster than I do.
I learned to type in high school. I had typing the semester of the blizzard — which is my excuse for making it to only 23 wpm then (how I remember that, I don’t know.)
I do at least 60 wpm now and am convinced I type faster as I’m thinking rather than when I’m reading from a page.
I still have trouble with the numbers and will sometimes spell them out rather than search for them.
I Can Text Comment One Word Per Minute!
I definitely type & fast (Too fast sometimes - it’s like not montoring the words out of my mouth sometimes!). Kids take “keyboarding” in school now, so I think they all learn what they’re *supposed* to be doing, but my daughter has learning & still sticks with the hunt & peck.
Making her do it the right way is on the list of stuff I’d find the time for right after I make sure she eats breakfast, wears her retainer, changes underwear, knows where the accents go on Spanish words, brushes her teeth, takes her allergy medication, wears her reading glasses…oh wait! What were we talking about? All the different stuff you have to force or coerce into doing these days?!?!?!?!? Let’s get back to younger dude here - 25 or so years age difference, huh? I guess that DOES seem like sort of a lot. :-0
Derek: Yeah, sometimes parents DO know best. Which is why I don’t follow their example
Christine: I find the term “Keyboarding” odd - I’m like UT and call it “touch typing” - meaning typing without having to look at the keys! I have also seen people like your husband who can hunt-and-peck like nobody’s business!
delmer: I forget my original typing speed. Maybe 45 wpm? It wasn’t all that fast. Why did you take typing? Just because of the blizzard?
eric: Hmmm..you must be hunting and pecking which would make sense, the pecking part that is, what with your affinity to chickens. (inside joke folks)
Jill: Hahahha! I wonder if kids use the term “keyboarding” because it sounds more hip than “typing.” When did you learn how to type??
So you have to use force or coercion, huh? That is so tiring!
Regarding Younger Dude - yes, not much on a 25 year age difference! Or 20. Or 15. Or 10. Maybe 10 but….depends!
dang, this makes me feel old!
i took typing in middle school. never was very good at it. no clue what my typing speed was, but it was no where near the top in the class.
my first computer didn’t do didly squat to help my typing speed. it was a timex/sinclair ts-1000. (clone of the sinclair zx-81, but it had double the onboard RAM at a whopping 2K!) the keyboard was this little tiny membrane thing that was horribly to use.
my junior year of high school was when we got a computer science class. around then, was when i got my second computer, a used apple ][+. full sized keyboard there, but to this day, my typing style ain’t the old touch typing. it’s mostly the index & middle fingers, with a little of the ring fingers, and the right hand jumping over on to the left’s keys.
one thing i’ve found that has stuck with me from doing some data entry is entering numbers on the numeric keypad. i can do that by touch, pretty much using the proper fingers. while typing, i’m somewhat looking at the keyboard as part of my typing.
ack: dang ! Seems like the fates conspired against you with respect to typing. I am not that great with the numeric pad and I’m not going to get any better since I’ve been working on a laptop for so long! My mom has a PC and regular keyboard and I still use the number keys along the top instead of the keypad!
Ms.Q - I learned in middle school. My mom or dad actually got us some kind of game where there was a space ship in the center of the tv or computer or whatever it was and the words came in from the corners of the screen. You had to shoot them (by typing the word) before it hit your ship.
I dunno on the age difference thing. I think it really does depend on the guy. I’ve dated ten years older and really the guy was almost younger than me in certain ways.
Jill: We learned about the same time, then. I forgit exactly how old you are but I vaguely recall you’re a couple of years younger. Anyway, same generation.
I didn’t get no game. Which was OK. I probably would not have played it. I never played video games. Well..I did play Pong and I tried Pacman but eh..not big on games. I used to play Solitaire but I don’t even count that as it’s not much different than the real thing.
Back to the age thing…65 still freaks me out. That’s too many years for me. 10 years either way…it depends on the guy. The younger way - he better not want children. The older way…he better be holding up well! Well..either way should be holding up well. I have seen wheezing uphill men in their 30s and…not purty.