Why typewriters beat computers

Image credit: Kent K Barnes/kentkb

This BBC article caught my eye the other day (well ages ago actually), as I guess I had assumed that the typewriter was largely extinct!

Forget One Laptop per Child, how about One typewriter per child?!

For all that it is easy to have a laugh at the typewriter's expense,  the article makes a number of interesting points:

In many respects the typewriter beats the computer for simplicity and reliability.  This is backed up by Frederick Forsyth who tells us that: 

There was the steel-cased portable he used as a foreign correspondent in the 1960s. "It had a crease across the lid which was done by a bullet in Biafra. It just kept tapping away. It didn't need power, it didn't need batteries, it didn't need recharging. One ribbon went back and forward and back until it was a rag, almost, and out came the dispatches."

Better Security with a Typewriter?

Frederick Forsyth “I have never had an accident where I have pressed a button and accidentally sent seven chapters into cyberspace, never to be seen again. And have you ever tried to hack into my typewriter? It is very secure." 

While the two points above are doubtless being made with a large amount of tongue in cheek, and perhaps it's easy to be nostalgic about the good old days, maybe all this new stuff does have a way to go before it is as reliable, as easy to use and as simple as a computer. 

The most interesting point made in the article is in relation to the creative process.  Using a computer makes you work differently than when using a typewriter:

The writer Will Self is a convert. He went back to using a manual typewriter several years ago. "I think the computer user does their thinking on the screen, and the non-computer user is compelled, because he or she has to retype a whole text, to do a lot more thinking in the head," he said in a recent interview.

I think this is valid – I will also write while thinking while editing.  I don’t worry about making mistakes and perhaps don’t even worry much about structure.  Is this good, is this bad or is this just different.   I don't have any answers but it's certainly food for thought. 

I wonder what others think?  There are lots of fabulous creative things that are enabled by computers of course – no mashups possible with a typewriter, no multimedia productions.

So the typewriter retains a place in some homes.  For how much longer I wonder?

Even the people that make typewriters are not exactly optimistic:

Brother UK's Mr Jones admits he is "surprised" that people are still buying typewriters, and "amazed" his company sell a handful for more than £500, which would buy a laptop.

Progress?