A recent Wall Street Journal report delves into Gen Z's surprising lack of keyboard typing skills, featuring interviews with several individuals and revealing some startling statistics.
The physical keyboard is just a tool. There are alternatives like speech-to-text software, virtual keyboards with swipe features, or stenotype.
The goal should be to use whatever is most effective and efficient for yourself, so if Gen Zrs are more used to touch screen, maybe they should invent a touch screen interface that you can use with the computer, maybe even incorporating the mouse somehow.
For me personally the touch interfaces right now are fucked up - I always tap the wrong letters on my phone, the auto-correct and suggestions used to compensate for this often times make it even worse, and swipe doesn’t come up with the words I want, I often have to swipe multiple times. I can’t imagine operating a computer like this, but maybe for Gen Zrs it’s no problem.
Maybe in the future you just need to think the word and it appears on the screen, and typing would be obsolete.
Keyboards exist the way they are because typewriters did it that way for nearly 150 years, and had to be that way because they are a mechanical device. We havent even changed the design of PC keyboards since IBM basically perfected it in the 80s. Theres probably a lot of room to improve the keyboard, but we dont because simply its already a refined invention and fimilar. For example, qwerty made sense on a mechanical device, but it makes zero sense on an electronic device. But familiarity keeps people on qwerty. Funny enough, this effects touch keyboards too.
The goal should be to use whatever is most effective and efficient for yourself,
And if taught as they should be, that will be the keyboard.
Counting out 5*5 on your fingers works and might be the fastest way you’ve been taught to multiply, but that doesn’t mean we should excuse schools not teaching times tables and how to use a caluclator.
As a Gen Z, I just don’t get it. One-off message, note or comment is fine. But have you never happened to have a long-ish conversation while on your phone? You get tired soon and want to go for a normal-sized physical keyboard.
The physical keyboard is just a tool. There are alternatives like speech-to-text software, virtual keyboards with swipe features, or stenotype.
The goal should be to use whatever is most effective and efficient for yourself, so if Gen Zrs are more used to touch screen, maybe they should invent a touch screen interface that you can use with the computer, maybe even incorporating the mouse somehow.
For me personally the touch interfaces right now are fucked up - I always tap the wrong letters on my phone, the auto-correct and suggestions used to compensate for this often times make it even worse, and swipe doesn’t come up with the words I want, I often have to swipe multiple times. I can’t imagine operating a computer like this, but maybe for Gen Zrs it’s no problem.
Maybe in the future you just need to think the word and it appears on the screen, and typing would be obsolete.
Keyboards exist the way they are because typewriters did it that way for nearly 150 years, and had to be that way because they are a mechanical device. We havent even changed the design of PC keyboards since IBM basically perfected it in the 80s. Theres probably a lot of room to improve the keyboard, but we dont because simply its already a refined invention and fimilar. For example, qwerty made sense on a mechanical device, but it makes zero sense on an electronic device. But familiarity keeps people on qwerty. Funny enough, this effects touch keyboards too.
100%
Input methods will change over time.
And if taught as they should be, that will be the keyboard.
Counting out 5*5 on your fingers works and might be the fastest way you’ve been taught to multiply, but that doesn’t mean we should excuse schools not teaching times tables and how to use a caluclator.
As a Gen Z, I just don’t get it. One-off message, note or comment is fine. But have you never happened to have a long-ish conversation while on your phone? You get tired soon and want to go for a normal-sized physical keyboard.