“They don’t teach typing anymore”… for what, a job in the typing pool?? 😅
People look at me like I’m taking crazy pills when I bring up The Typing of the Dead. Literally House of the Dead with a keyboard. You type or you die. It brings that Dark Souls energy to Mavis Beacon’s doorstep.
They don’t teach typing anymore. Which is like. Makes zero sense.
I see college kids typing out essays with two index fingers.
No one learns typing unless forced. It’s super boring.
They need to make it mandatory in public schools. Or future generations will be unable to type properly.
I learned it back in like 8th grade or something.
When I was a kid they taught us how to type in school. But they taught everybody how to type wrong: with your hands parallel to each other, instead of wrists straight. I nearly got carpal tunnel syndrome and had to learn how to type a second time!
8th grade? I had typing lessons in 4th!
I’m in my mid-20s, and I taught myself to type using only my index and pointer fingers (plus thumb for space bar). Had about 80 wpm, but made quite a few errors.
A few years ago, I swapped to Colemak and took that opportunity to finally learn to touch-type. Now I’m at 95 wpm with much better accuracy, and I don’t need to look anymore. Feels way more comfortable to type too.
On mobile, I still use QWERTY and type with my thumbs. I can do that reasonably well with my eyes closed, considering the complete lack of tactile feedback.
Turner orr ep3ll chk3cker and typed this sentence with my eyrs floser. (“Turned off spell checker and typed this sentence with my eyes closed.”)
Dude you’re not hitting 80 WPM with pokey-poke
I worked with a dude that insisted his speed was insane and when we tested him and took errors into account, the actual WPM was more like 15.
Your index finger isn’t what you use to point?
Maybe his Index is on the left hand and his pointer on the right
Lmao yhat was a pretty good attempt to be fair.
Whoa, only one error
As a blind computer user I’m shocked at how many people forget touch typing exists. I learned earlier than most, by necessity, and didn’t have to take the then-mandatory keyboarding classes in middle school.
you’re blind ? using lemmy ? dude please talk more , how ? heck how did you even see the image ?!
Blind doesn’t mean they can’t see anything. Just that they have impaired vision.
My mother used to work for the Minnesota State Services for the Blind, so I grew up around a bunch of blind people. Most of them could partially see. They were considered “legally blind.” But they still needed tools to help them “see” better.
That’s what my mother’s job did; they provided access to equipment to assist blind people in their day-to-day lives. Converting books into braille or audio recordings, supplying walking canes, tape decks, and access to other resources to help them out.
They also gave out radios tuned to their own station, and they had a broadcasting studio in the office where employees or volunteers would just read newspapers or magazines for blind people to listen to over the radio.
Granted, my memory of all this was back before the Internet was a thing. I’m sure there are more advanced tools for this modern day and age that help with computer access.
I worked with a guy doing tech support that was blind. It was fascinating. He couldn’t of course see images. He would often ask me what was on the screen so he could help the caller. He used a Braille keyboard. It was awesome. Basically scroll line by line and the keyboard pops up the line enabling him to read it.
Touch typing means a whole different thing now lol
30 Years ago
F J F J F J … G H G H G H …
all lads had a sad lass
Look, I hadn’t learned what to do with girls yet ok? I got better.
While we’re at it: Fuck those ASUS designers that decided to put those nubbins on W key. Republic of gamers my ass, ⇥a21` you.
Just showing off, excuse me
Now make it dvorak
Well, username checks out.
Homeboy mixed up his username and his password.
I hope autofill did that. That’s for sure a rando password right?
Genuinely made me laugh
I can handle most typing by touch but there’s no way I’m going to remember the ampersand, carrot, and percentage keys.
I had key caps like that in grad school both in my home and school computers. Made it real awkward when friends would come over and try to use my computer for something (e.g. look up some songs to put on a Spotify playlist).
My main keyboard was a blank das keyboard for a while, and I had a Fisher price learning keyboard that I’d pull out for my friends if my keyboard intimidated them.
I had a more sedate keyboard for those I didn’t know well enough.
That is very funny trolling and exactly how one should treat their friends
well i have no friends, so am safe
This guy types so much, friction completely erased the prints
it wasn’t there in the first place :p
get in touch with their support if you haven’t already
I think you misunderstand, i payed 10€ to not have the prints, because not only it’s wrong when the layout changes (i do this a lot) but it is also way cooler looking
Your confidence is intimidating
framework spotted! (13 pro? wink wink)
I see another fella 😉
I thought the pro only came in the black/graphite
Seemed to become a rarer skill in the late 80s early 90s. It’s now at the point where I’m surprised if a co-op or younger coworker knows how to touch type. So strange with how “everything is computer” for so many jobs. How it is not a prerequisite for computer science courses blows my mind. I don’t think I could manage it.
Born in time to ask shitty questions on Twitter.
Born too late to JUST FUCKING GOOGLE IT.
I would guess some people like learning being a social experience
This. Some people seem to take the desire to learn from a person as a personal attack, too.
UST UCKING GOOGLE IT
FTFY
Not to get too technical, but you meant
TY
You’re welcome!
I took typing (on a typewriter) in eighth grade for the same reason I took Home Ec--that’s where the girls were. I didn’t know I’d actually be using the skill just a couple of years later.
My kid grew up in front of a computer, before such things were rightfully frowned upon. He taught himself to type, I’ve watched him do it. He uses the first two fingers of each hand and a thumb for the space bar. He types as fast as I do, which is to say, I’ve never been a particularly fast typist, but I get by okay.
What I never learned to do, because I don’t do it much, is type with two thumbs on a phone.
Home ec was awesome. The girls didn’t like me, but I can cook like a motherfucker.
30 yr old UK male here, I was never taught typing. I think it’s just something you learn if you use keyboards enough.
34 year old american. Same. I learned to type by commenting on reddit.
Same age, but I had typing classes from grade 4. Oddly enough, I grew up in small town Canada, so kinda surprising lol.
They’re referring to touch typing, which is a formal skill. The lines signify where your index fingers should rest when not used. All fingers are supposed to live in the middle row, and only go for their immediate neighbors up and down. It is not quite the same as just learning to type on your own.
We learned 10-key (number pad/big calculators) in the same “keyboarding” class. It’s definitely a formal skill and there are specific methods used.
I know what they’re referring to. And I’m saying that if you use keyboards enough, you will naturally develop the muscle memory required for touch typing.
As someone who developed muscle memory on keyboards from 4-6, and then had to unlearn that muscle memory when I was doing touch typing classes, it is just not true that you naturally acquire the muscle memory for touch typing through typing practice.
It’s a formal skill that has to be practiced deliberately to develop.
I dont think thats necessarily true.
If you type enough you will certainly be able to do so without looking, but its surely undeniable that someone who has practiced a specific technique will be faster, and more accurate, particularly with punctuation and special characters.
No, they won’t. The specific technique is just a standardised way of educating people. It isn’t inherently better than a technique that an individual has developed on their own. Might the specific technique be more efficient in terms of movement? Perhaps. But if someone has found a technique that works for them, it might also be what’s most efficient for them. But in terms of speed and accuracy? They’re the same.
I learnt to “type” when I was at school, programming a Commodore Vic-20. I thought I was quite fast, but what I had really learnt was just the key combos for common words. It’s what most people who have never learnt properly before do, and it’s called “point and poke”. You don’t realise the extra effort you’re putting in, and the mistakes you’re making (overuse of the backspace key) and so on.
When I went to college at 16 (UK) to study computer science, we had the option of learning touch typing. We all thought we were pretty good at typing, but afterwards, we’d all doubled our typing speed (or more) and increased our accuracy by 10x. We learnt on proper electric golfball typewriters, and as we got better, we all noticed that code entry got a lot faster. The thing that is affected most, though, is typing up from notes or printed copy - because you don’t have to keep looking away from the source, back to the keyboard and screen, you can be much quicker. Also, typing your thoughts is much faster as you are not having to split your attention between the thoughts and the keyboard - what you think just appears on the screen without having to spend mental effort on typing.
I feel like we’re talking about two different things. Touch typing, regardless of the technique used, only implies looking away from the keyboard. If you’ve got the muscle memory, and instinctively know where keys are, whether that’s through technique or reinforced familarity, you can look wherever you want.
Yeah, you and all the people you’re responding to are talking about different things.
They’re talking about touch typing, a noun with a specific definition and meaning referring to a technique, instructional method and practice and you’re talking about what you think words should mean.
Hybrid typists can definitely hit high WPM but unless they’re learning to type using the 8 horizontal homerow keys it’s not touch typing. It really is a specific technique.
(I did not downvote you, just adding to the conversation.)
There is no significant difference in WPM or accuracy between people who were self-taught, and those who had formal education. Refusing to call it touch typing, simply because it isn’t using a specific technique, is pedantic at best.
The term “touch typing” is not a generic term for typing at any particular speed, or for typing with or without looking at the keys. It refers to a specific typing technique in which specific fingers are used for specific keys. Referring to the term correctly is not pedantry or elitism. I don’t think anyone is arguing that another technique is inferior, or that it is in any way not typing, only that it is, in fact, different from the specific typing technique referred to as “touch typing”.
In a similar vein, a self-taught fighter could potentially be more skilled than one with some training in Taekwondo. That doesn’t mean that the self-taught fighter is using Taekwondo, and pointing out that difference is not “pedantic at best”; it’s simply correct.
it is generic
it is clearly descriptive
find a better term to call it
We all voted on it, did you miss election day?
Language doesn’t work like that. In professional and educational contexts? Yeah, it’ll likely refer to a specific technique. But in general? Absolutely not. I’m calling it pedantic because the technique is just that - a technique. I’m not claiming that it has anything to do with skill, WPM, or accuracy, just that they’re the same in those regards. On that point, your analogy doesn’t really work for me, since we have very different views on the topic. You think touch typing is only a specific technique, whereas I think it has a less restrictive definition, certainly in everyday use. To use the same analogy, for me it’s like you’re saying only it’s only Taekwondo if it’s a specific style of Taekwondo.
So, if I’m understanding you correctly, you’re coming upon others who agree with my assertion that the term “touch typing” refers to a specific technique for typing, and using the term to refer to that specific technique, and your response is to call them pedantic because you think the term should be defined more broadly than they (or I) understand it to be defined. Is that correct?
As for the issue you point out with my analogy, I think one of us is confused, and I’m not attempting to imply that I know which one. I used the analogy because touch typing is a specific technique for typing, just as Taekwondo is a specific type of martial arts. A self-taught fighter would be analogous to a self-taught typist. If you believe the term “touch typing” absolutely cannot refer to a specific typing technique, then I would ask for the term you believe is correct to refer to that specific technique to which the rest of us are referring. I’m fine with using a different term to refer to the technique to which I am attempting to refer, but “touch typing” is the only one I know. If you know another, please provide it, and I’ll use that.
LOL
Your typing is inferior.
How does that make you feel?
It makes me feel sorry for your apparent idiocy.
You seem a little insecure about it.
I used to go to this secondary school where there were four classes (4x~35 students) each year: two for economics, one for marketing and one for IT. I chose the IT one. They taught basic typing for all four, but speed typing was only required in three. Guess where it wasn’t…
Well… Ill explain for somebody who doesnt know:
Those are four your index finger. For the left and right hand.
So you can always have a base point for your typing without looking
Those are four your index finger.
But I only have two index fingers. Is that why I’m not good at typing?
I’ll fuckin bite because everyone else missed it.
How are these suppose to help when I have 144+ index fingers??? There’s not enough keys, let alone keys with whatever those little lines are
I mostly type with my index and middle fingers only and type 144+ wpm lol… My wife’s always like “wth”
I’ve met a few people like that. Often they don’t go to the gym or do any form of exercise so this is how they choose to exert around 5,000 to 7,000N/cm2 for each of those keystrokes.
With not a millimetre of irony in their face they then tell you they need this brand of mechanical keyboard because the “cheaper ones all break”.
I had to break the nerd cycle that don’t touch grass, I gym 2 hours a day every day after work. And, don’t you know? The loudest keyboard in the office is the most dominate!! 😂
Cool.
Yessir the right way to learn to type was to out spam the spammers in world chat on WoW and trade 1 world on RS in 2005.
It’s not just typing speed. It’s also comfort and strain on your wrists and hand muscles.
Good typing position significantly reduces the risks of carpal tunnel syndrome, among other things.
I strongly disagree. I firmly believe that the “proper form” you and I were taught is why carpal tunnel is so common(I don’t think it one size fits all) People should do what’s comfortable for them. In fact, I’m pushing mid-30 and when I use proper form I get uncomfortable pain, and if I get a chair that doesn’t line up the armrest with my desk perfectly I also get uncomfortable pain. It’s possible that growing up with computers like I did I found what just worked for me, but I’ve never found the proper form comfortable. I’ve had computer classes up into my adult life.
With a good chair (my Herman) and wrist rest (a wood block) I’ve had 0 pain and work at my computer 8+ hours a day. I never leave my desk with any strain.
Hell almost every engineer I know doesn’t type properly. For me, the real problem is I always tuck a foot under me and sit on it. 😂
whoosh
Hopefully this is helpful.
I came in here ready to say home keys. Then I thought that might be confusing without an explanation given the actual “home” key. Then no one was calling them that even though the lemmy demographic skews older.
I wish home row mods were people’s default on top of touch typing. It’s just peak comfort when combined with a layout that isn’t QW***Y.
What layouts do you suggest?
They didn’t teach typing when I was in school. I guess it’s an assumed skill? Anywho, I still knew what those notches/bumps were for :3
Out of curiosity, about when were you in grade school? I learned touch typing in the late 90s in middle school. I remember laminated construction paper taped to each keyboard so we could learn visually first, then had to flip it over and cover our hands to start developing the muscle memory for each set of keys.
Not who you asked but I was in highschool in the 2010s and they had a typing class but it was an elective.
We didn’t start IT until 5th grade, which would’ve been in 2012-2013 :3
