The manual typewriter is going the same way as the 8 track tape and the floppy disk. Let's give a moment of silence for the death of an icon.
Note: This article isn't really about finding a job or the tech industry, but I felt like it was appropriate to eulogize a device that revolutionized printing and made typesetting accessible to the masses.
If you have been meaning to pick up a manual typewriter, but haven't gotten around to it yet, you might want to hurry, because it is heading for extinction.
The last company in the world that still manufactures manual typewriters, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co., stopped making the typewriters in 2009 and they announced earlier this week that they only have 500 machines left in stock.
Although the company, based in India, makes a wide variety of products, ranging from washing machines to air conditioners, they used to make over 50,000 manual typewriters each year.
Even though in America, most people had moved on to electronic typewriters over a decade ago, the manual typewriter was still very popular in other countries. In India, for example, there are many roadside typists who offer to type documents for customers for a small fee. The manual typewriter didn't require electricity, which made it the perfect device for typing things in lesser developed areas.
These days, in the U.S, it is rare to even find an electric typewriter in an average home. As typewriters gave way to word processors, and word processors gave way to computers, the typewriter become much less necessary.
When I was in High School, every student was required to take a typing class and learn to touch type using an electric typewriter. During college, most of my essays were pounded out on a cheap, second hand model. It was significantly easier to have a typewriter in my dorm room than it was to make an appointment at the computer lab to use Word Perfect.
For several years, many people kept a typewriter in their home, even though they had a computer. This was because there were still times when it was necessary to fill out important forms that weren't available as editable PDFs. For example, filling out job applications, court documents and even tax forms would require using a typewriter. At some point however, it became acceptable to just hand write the information on those forms, and the need for the typewriter disappeared.
So, let's take a moment to remember an icon, and if you happen to have an old manual typewriter in an attic or closet somewhere, you might want to hang on to one of these dinosaurs.
Did you learn to type on a typewriter or a computer keyboard? Let me know in the comments.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for TechCareersBlog. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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