(02-15-2024, 09:05 PM)Maxmars Wrote: Hopefully, my hyperbolic implication of a coming time when people won't know how to write is unlikely. After all, if a person can read, they must surely be able to at least try to write.
More research is required to flesh out the findings here, as it is only one application of this line of questioning. Other researchers seem to question the study, but not to refute the assertion, but to more precisely refine the data with better measurements...
It seems clear though, the act of linking motor-skills (writing) and reasoning, engenders more robust brain activity than typing.
Too bad my handwriting is nigh indecipherable. [insert heavy sigh herein]
Excellent points (and you beat me to several of them.) I agree that there needs to be more research to flesh out the findings.
...and like you, my handwriting is almost unreadable.
I understand that many people prefer to print (my own cursive style is a mix of printed and cursive letters) rather than to use cursive. It has a number of advantages; the main being that it's easier to read. But if we look at history, we can see that ancient Egypt had three different types of "similar" alphabets (demotic, hieratic, hieroglyphs) that were all used at the same time (much as we have cursive and print) and each had its own uses. Hieroglyphs are most similar to printing -- no one used them when writing long things on papyri. They're used for public announcements and proclamations. Hieratic was closest to our cursive (and can be darn hard to read, by the way)
Demotic arose much later (around 2,000 years later) as an "improvement"... didn't last, though, and was rapidly overtaken by alphabet systems with far fewer letters (there are well over 500 known hieroglyphs.)
(02-16-2024, 05:45 AM)Hefficide Wrote: My point here... It's entirely probable that not using the part of brains required for handwriting can cause some mental atrophy - but is it not also possible that, in return, the part of the mind required for typing might make up for that difference? New neurons and pathways, just in a different spot?
If so - maybe it's not a bad thing.
Not much to add but wanted to say that I really enjoyed (and agree with) your post.