If you ask my five-year-old son about the computer, he’ll show you exactly how to start up one of the many games, surf the net or watch a movie streaming on Netflix. If you ask him what 
a typewriter is, then he’ll look at you quizzically and then go play on the computer.
Being a writer in my early 30’s, I’ll admit that there is a bit of nostalgia and fondness for typewriters in me. Many of the greatest novels ever created were done on typewriters and thousands of people before me were trained to type on typewriters. And honestly, who cannot love the clickity clack sound they make when you hit their keys?
It was with more than a little sadness and regret that I read a story by USA Today about the world’s last typewriter factory selling their last batch of 500 and concentrating on building refrigerators. I understand that with today’s technology, the typewriter has been relegated to the value of the 8-track and Betamax but, still, the thought that my children may never appreciate the role that typewriters played in history makes me sad.
How many presidential documents, treaties and communications between the most powerful people in the world were created using a typewriter? It was used to communicate and draft letters during the World Wars and the best movies of the last century were first transcribed on a typewriter.
People could type hundreds of words per minute – completely error free. There was no spell check or backspace. If a mistake was made, it was a painstaking process to either completely retype the page or use corrective tape and then replace the paper, line it up and retype the letter or word.
Each typewriter was unique. Even if it was mass-produced, usage of the keys and the thousands of words typed wore down the machine in a unique way. Today’s computers are sterile and anything but unique. They all use the same programs and the first keystroke looks exactly like the millionth.
It’s very possible that my children will never see a typewriter except in a history book. They’ll never understand how difficult it was to write in the days before computers. They’ll read books from an e-reader and type their book reports on their tablet in the study hall before class.
With the typewriter becoming obsolete, it is an end of an era. A sad ending in my opinion.
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