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The decline of handwritten communications

Manila Bulletin

|

March 25, 2025

I was rummaging over old files one Sunday to see which ones were no longer important and could be disposed of. A sudden pang of nostalgia hit me as I noticed a small, worn leather journal before me. It was filled with handwritten notes. Reviewing the pages, I remembered when handwriting was the only way to take notes. When was I last composed something handwritten, at least a full page?

- B. IBRAHIM

The decline of handwritten communications

The age of handwritten communication seemed to be drawing to a close, a casualty of the relentless march of technological progress. Like those old notes, handwritten communications are slowly becoming a distant memory, a quaint artifact of a pre-digital age. People my age and maybe the generation after us are so lucky to have not just learned to write in school but went through early in our lives using handwriting as the means of communication.

The world has clearly moved on. Communication is now instantaneous, effortless, and ephemeral. Emotions are conveyed through emojis, thoughts are shared in fleeting text messages, and relationships are maintained through video calls. There is no time for the slow, deliberate act of handwriting, careful word selection, or thoughtful sentence construction. The rapid ascendancy of digital technologies has undeniably transformed the landscape of communication.

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