#44: Bad Handwriting

The Story Behind Bad Handwriting

Illustrated by EEK.

Handwriting is a lost art form these days. As a child, I was told that penmanship was an essential part of being an adult. Not only that, I was also told I need to become an expert at cursive or, as I liked to call it, fancy scribbles.

In reality, these things weren’t important after school. With the rise of keyboards and smartphones, the need to write by hand became obsolete. In fact, a lot of people have almost entirely lost the ability to write legibly. We can text quickly but we are a total loss when it comes to pen and paper like we used in elementary school. Sadly, there is no reason to believe that will change. Our society isn’t going backwards, we aren’t going to suddenly stop using touchscreens and smartphones and go back to writing things by hand. So there is a chance — and not a small one — that the art of handwriting is as dead as disco. Now no one will ever get to see my hard-earned and probably lost cursive skills.

Plain Text Description of Bad Handwriting

A sticky note with "URGENT!!! Call..." then unreadable scribbles. "Never write urgent notes while in a hurry."