Let's Talk: Typing or Writing? | Social Media Steals Childhood?

Earlier today, I had a class with a 7-year-old student. I asked him about his preference: Does he like writing or typing? He immediately answered, typing.

I asked him why, and he said, 'It's faster, and my hand wouldn't ache, just like when I'm writing.'

It makes sense, and I agree with him... although I'm also the kind of person who enjoys writing. But I get him... when I was his age, we were asked to write a bunch of essays and we had to do it in cursive.

And to be honest, I hated it. My hand was sore from writing... and my mom was really strict back then. Whenever she dislikes my handwriting, or when she sees a bunch of erasures on my notebook, she'd tear the page and make me write over and over again. hahah

I just laugh at it now, but I thought... kids nowadays hardly experience that kind of thing anymore. I'm not even sure whether or not they're still teaching cursive at school.

Well, my student, who is Japanese, attends an international school in Japan, and they sometimes have to write in both the Japanese writing system (Kanji, hiragana, katakana) and the English alphabet.

That's another reason why he prefers typing. In Japan, they have a bunch of Kanji to memorize, but when they type, they simply use the hiragana and choose from the Kanji options that pop up.

Even my adult students would tell me how they have forgotten how to write Kanji as it has been ages since they had to do so. They rely on the pop-up option on their phones or computers.

Well, for English... there's autocorrect as well.

Another topic that I discussed with a few of my students today was the words of the Danish PM regarding Social Media trying to steal childhood.

Here's a line from her speech highlighted in the article.

"We have unleashed a monster," Frederiksen said. "Never before have so many children and young people suffered from anxiety and depression."

Well, I can't blame her... Social media can be a toxic place... I used to use several social media platforms back in the day, but I rarely check my accounts now. I even deleted most of my apps, although I can still access the website at any time.

Many young people today are addicted to social media. However, I can't really compare what they (young generation) feel about it. I'm not a digital native like them.

I grew up playing outside, though I was also into watching anime on TV or playing video games back then. You could say I belong to the generation that experienced both worlds.

Having said that, if my government bans playing outside or playing video games during my time, I can't imagine how I may feel. However, the situation may or may not be comparable. xD And the activities we did before didn't cause any mental health problems, though we did get hurt physically from time to time... a few scrapes here and there, some broken bones, etc. LOL

This is just a random thought, though... I just had several classes talking about this topic, so it made me wonder. What do you think? Comment down below... and let's talk! haha