I was listening to a radio programme this morning (no point linking to it as it won't stay up for long) about whether anyone these days actually writes with pen/pencil/biro/magic marker on paper any more. A poet, a novelist, a philosopher (Generosity or What?), an (ancient) editor turned writer all discursed...most interestingly about whether word processing and the internet had killed off handwriting and whether this was a good/bad/indifferent thing. Thing? Not sure. Never mind. 

Things (hm) occurred to me as they talked: how my own handwriting is fast (very useful) but so bad I frequently cannot read it back (less useful), and certainly almost nobody else can. How my older sister had wonderful handwriting (how come?). How the only time I resort to writing by hand is for shopping lists, notes to my house mate, scribbles in my notebook for novels etc (illegible so...), scrawls on a calendar.

I no longer write letters by hand. If I am posting one rather than emailing it (even, I am embarrassed to say a letter of condolence) I will type it on my PC and begin by apologising for this and resorting to the awfulness of my handwriting as the excuse. One of the contributors to the radio programme referred to letters of condolence. She said she composed hers on her PC then copied them carefully by hand. I blushed to myself (if that is possible), abashed. It had never occurred to me to do that. But I'm not convinced trying it would be any better: writing slowly doesn't seem to make enough difference.

They wondered whether writing or typing affect what is expressed. And in fact this is something I once wrote a piece about, Tools of the Trade, although the prompt there was voice recognition. Are we more ourselves, inadvertently when we write or when we type? Does it depend on which of now several generations we belong to? 

What wasn't discussed, and I wish someone would, is whether neurologically there is a difference. Could people be wired up so that an imager like an MRI scanner could detect which parts of the brain clunk into action depending on the instrument in/to/under hand?