Will Handwriting Be Written Off?

When I was in elementary school, we learned both block writing and cursive. I hated cursive. Some people are able to write in cursive and create beautiful handwriting. Mine always looked scrunched up and messy.

I have to say, I haven’t used cursive sense my high school days. Even when I write a letter, well, a birthday card, I use block letters.

Nevertheless, I’ve been sad to see a number of articles saying schools are no longer teaching cursive. It has something to do with computers making hand-written communication obsolete, and the fact that people just don’t use it anymore, like me.

It makes me wonder if handwriting itself will one day be seen as obsolete. After all, we have the ability now to do almost everything we need to in life without ever writing a single word.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my computer, my iPad, and my iPhone. But sometimes it’s just easier to scribble something down on a notepad. One of my writing friends just yesterday said that she had so many computer problems that she was going back to writing her manuscripts longhand in a notebook, and then typing them into the computer later.

After all, this is how books were once written.

So my question today – from a science fiction perspective, will handwriting become obsolete in our culture? And if so, is it a net loss or net gain? And what forms of “written” communication will likely replace it?