I am not sure if we are moving in the right direction with what technology we are adopting. Each new iteration of a device seems to be yet another abstraction. Writing itself is already an abstraction of spoken language, but let's set that aside for a moment.
Marking with ink on paper by moving one's hand seems the most connected we can generally come to the practice of writing. We are physically doing it. Then there is using a typewriter, we stamp the letters, so it is mostly us doing it. We can at least see the process of how our action leads to the construction of the letters on the page and there is not a whole lot hidden from us in how this works. Then there is the computer with a keyboard. I am still pressing keys, much in the same way as a typewriter, but my grasp of how the letter is displayed is mostly hidden from me.
I understand that my press of the key executes some code, but that part is mysterious to me. I could educate myself on this, but if something were to go wrong with the process I probably wouldn't know where to start. I can fix a typewriter, I can get a pen writing again. If my keyboard suddenly stopped working, I probably couldn't get it started up again.
Then there is the touchscreen keyboard, there isn't even a physical key anymore. All of these have a connection of stringing symbols in a distinct pattern to illustrate an idea that is then interpreted by someone else and constructed into meaning for them. Continuing on this trajectory, we may begin making gestures and interacting with something that is predictive of what we want to write. We keep lessening the physical interaction, so it would make sense that pretty soon we will have to touch very little to write an idea. We're already seeing aspects of this with predictive text where we tap once for a whole word.
I am wondering what all this abstraction may be doing to us. Does the level of abstraction in writing affect the way that we think? Do we lose something as we move up the layers of abstraction in writing? What do we gain? For a while it made typing faster and neater, but touchscreens stopped that progression on speed for a while. At what point does our speed of typing outstrip our speed of thought. Are we just destined to type faster than we can think of what to type, generating trifle?
I prefer to write by hand when given the luxury of it. But that is becoming more and more of a burden as everything moves into online, synchronous documents that other people insist on seeing the progress of. (I am working on things, trust me, you do not need to see the work in progress). I notice a different quality to my writing when it is done by hand versus originally typed on a computer. Writing by hand, to me, is a good burden. I enjoy doing it even if it is rather cumbersome and takes far longer to produce the same quantity of text. That quantity of text is central to my thoughts on this though. The quality of something should be more important than the quantity, yet we find ourselves in a world of ever more production and quantity. That is the metric of worth, but is it worthwhile to live according to such a maxim?
I'll continue updating with how my thoughts are unfolding.