We are all familiar with the sound of a computer keyboard. It’s become as commonplace in everyday life as ring tones, car alarms and Mister Softee. We have been raised to enjoy the soft clicks of keys being tapped and spacebars being given the sides of our thumbs in salute, and people under 50 are not as familiar with any other way to record letters and words for reading.
For those of us over 50, we remember typewriters. The old-fashioned keys were metal arms tipped with a smooth circular resting place for our fingers with each letter proudly displayed on top. They also weighed two tons and were made mostly of metal. Later we began using electric typewriters with tapered block keys. Those were also heavier than a toddler and unwieldy to carry. The most famous was the IBM Selectric, which relied on balls for printing the characters in various fonts.
The sounds coming from a high school typing class were a cacophony of clacking and dinging. Each line ended with the need for a carriage return, signaled by a bell in the machine. You can look up “The Typewriter Song” on social media for more. We then moved up to data entry on a computer, with no loud clicks or dings and no bell, because word processing does its own returns and can practice “widow and orphan” control to make each line of print a marvel of efficiency, perfectly placed.
In the olden days, students could center typing line by line on the typewriter and create art: the most common task would be Christmas trees made with one letter centered on line one, three letters on line two, and so forth. The end result was always in black.
The problem with computers is that they are connected to the entire cyber world. Unlike the task of typing which demands your full attention (you are in charge of actual paper, ink ribbons, and carbon paper sheets for copies, not to mention bottles of correction fluid for mistakes), one is often beckoned away from the task of typing by emails, social media engagement or shopping alerts. It’s hard sometimes to reach a word count goal when pop-ups from your favorite family members or local binge spending mecca demand your attention.
In order to avoid some of these distractions, I made an investment on a hybrid method of typing which combines a bare bones computer with the missing joys of using a typewriter. The device is for drafting only. Text appears a few lines at a time on a small screen, and you can correct or delete and then send your creation to an email destination for storage. The best part is the return of the clack of keys as you type. Who’d have thought that one could bring nostalgia back to one’s hands after all these years? It’s a lightweight, portable, simple gizmo with just a USB-C port. Nothing fancy.
So far I have set up the Wi-Fi connection and sent a test draft to my drop box, successfully and quickly. It’s encouraging to see that I can now back away from the many alluring detours of computers without dealing with paper, ink ribbons and carbon sheets. My plan is to spend more time with this device during the week for at least a seven-day trial, and see how much bigger my word count can be.
The only thing missing is the bell for carriage return. Maybe I can get one on Amazon and use it like the guy in the Typewriter Song. Would that make me a crazy typing lady? Ding ding ding.
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 