Why I Use a Typewriter in 2024: Embracing Analog in a Digital Age

I didn't grow up using a typewriter. In fact, the first time I used one was easier this year. I grew up like most millennials, using Microsoft Word on a Windows machine. That quickly evolved into using modern cloud-based tools like Evernote, OneNote, and Google Docs. Like everyone else, I assumed that since these are the newest tools, they must be the best tools as well.

Gone are the olden ways of the pen and paper, for we have transcended beyond them towards our new cyber cloud faith. A faith in which we will improve our lives by looking towards the future and forgetting our past.

1. Ownership. "We spend most of our lives pushing electronic nothings while staring at a glowing rectangle" - Michael Harris. There is no tangible work being done and no physical product being made. Typewriters instill ownership and pride of one's work by creating a permanent physical record, one that the writer will own forever without the fear of losing their password or having their software becoming obsolete
   

2. Slow, deep thought. Modern tools all boast tremendous efficiency and speed, but they come at the expense of needing to be continuously updated and managed. They interrupt the writer with alerts, notifications, and other distractions that take them away from their ultimate goal: to make good work. Typewriters are slow. And with that slowness comes deep thought. They are silent (though surely not quiet). And with that silence comes the lack of interruption. They encourage and promote the flow & outpouring of ideas from headspace to reality.
   

3. My voice. Electronic writing tools allow one to toil and tweak endlessly without the possibility of ever arriving at their promised state of perfection. All of those "mistakes", those past edits and revisions - they are all lost, deleted and replaced time and time again with "better" work. But where have all of those mistakes gone? Nowhere. Typewrtters save those mistakes, they become something you can listen to and learn from. Your voice is forever preserved without being replaced with grammar check or AI assistant.
   

4. Confidence. With digital tools, it's all too easy to write something only to shortly thereafter delete it. With a typewriter, what you write is real. It's actually present in the real world and it's impossible to ignore. It forces you to commit words to page and deal with their reality. Typewriters require balls.
   

5. Fun. The ease and convenience of modern writing tools has completely sucked the fun out of using them. A typewriter is fun precisely because it's less efficient. It is loud, messy work. The kind of work that you can actually enjoy and get lost in. As David Saxx says, "There is no romance in the mouse click".
   

I wrote this on my typewriter, obviously...