Last April, I wrote a blog lamenting the death of the typewriter. The last company to make ’em—an outfit in India—decided to put an end to production, leaving the old machines to fade into history, as if their last words were being typed with an old, worn-out ribbon.
But perhaps the eulogy was a bit premature. Sure, new typewriters aren’t rolling off the assembly lines anymore. But the old ones are still popular—particularly with 20-something hipsters who do most of their communicating via smartphone.
And, somewhat ironically, the machine’s newfound popularity owes a bit to the Internet.
According to an article in Salon.com, the webosphere is—if not exactly awash, at least damp with—typewriter aficionados sharing their fondness of the machines with each other. Forums like Type Clack and Typesmitten have popped up. Matt Cidoni, a 17-year-old blogger, launched a site called Adventures in Typewriterdom, a fairly traditional blog where all entries are first typewritten.
“I thought it was fascinating,” he says. “I love how it’s right in front of you the minute you hit a key. You don’t have to wait for it to print, nothing crashes, and you don’t have to worry about power outages.” He has, incidentally, helped several of his friends buy typewriters, too.
Some do-it-yourselfers are crafting weird, steampunk-like hybrids, where users clack out missives on a traditional typewriter keyboard connected to a computer. (One maker has sold hundreds of do-it-yourself kits online.). Others are using the Internet to organize “type-ins,” where folks gather and … well, type, I guess.
Now, obviously this applies to a relatively small subset of folks out there. I don’t envision anyone punting their desktops and laptops and tablets for a 1932 Underwood. And if Plugged In executives told me that they were replacing my drab ol’ Dell with an IBM Selectric typewriter, I’d say, “I’ll give you my computer when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.”
But it’s great to see this new interest in old stuff, and it may speak to a certain disillusionment with our techno-saturated age. Polls suggest that, while youth love their tech, they’re also conflicted about whether it’s making their lives better.
According to a recent survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, respondents believed that technology would rewire our brains to an extent—but were divided almost evenly as to whether that rewiring would be mostly positive (we can absorb so much information!) or negative (we’ll be unable to focus!). Anecdotally, we hear that some youth are leaving social networking sites like Facebook, some apparently longing for a more unplugged social life.
Again, I don’t think there’ll be a mass exodus from our computerized age, nor would I want there to be. For me, there’s little question that technology has made my working life easier and more productive. I’m just young enough where my entire writing career—from high school on up—has been done in front of a computer screen.
But it’s encouraging that some of our futuristic technologies can help us appreciate what came before a bit better. Because the world is also a better place when there are people—even a few—who remember what the click-clack of a typewriter sounds like.
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