Is cursive script an anachronism?

[Elok]

I once heard a pair of Older People lamenting how they don't even teach kids to write cursive anymore. I joined in, "yeah, and you know what else they don't teach anymore? Cuneiform." I'm sure cursive was very useful before computers became ubiquitous, when people needed a way to write a little faster by hand. At least, that's the justification I've heard for it, that if you actually learn to write that stuff you can go a lot faster because you hardly need to lift the pen.

However, I never got the hang of it and eventually said "screw it," because many of those letters look very little like their more commonly seen print equivalents. The uppercase "G," for example, and both "z" characters. Also, after writing cursive for a while I find a lot of people's handwriting tends to degenerate into this nasty little squiggle that's impossible to decipher. So I say to hell with it; those old people just assumed that, as they went through the bother of learning it, it must necessarily be worth learning.

Discuss.

[Al B. Sure!]

I don't even remember cursive anymore and they taught it to us all through grade school.

The only thing I write in cursive is my signature... and those are the only letters I know how to do in cursive.

A print signature makes you look retarded.

[Riesstiu IV]

Funny you should mention older people lamenting the decline of cursive writing. The only time I use cursive is when I write letters to my Grandparents.

I type out everything else or use email/facebook.

[Asher]

I can't even print properly.

[OzzyKP]

I had to learn Denelian back in the day. Just as useless as cursive.

I won't lose any sleep over the death of cursive writing.

[Thoth]

Is cursive script an anachronism?


**** no. You mother****ing ********er.

[SlowwHand]

It boggles my mind to think of soldiers emailing home and all. There was an article about this in the Dallas News recently, the losing of cursive. I have to admit, I wrote a thank you note to someone recently and I hadn't actually written in so long that it looked and felt spastic. I used to have good penmanship.

[Ghaladh]

Ehy, actually I write exclusively in cursive... :-S I cannot find the f***ing CAPS LOCK on my f***ing pen!
Stupid jokes apart, if you do not have a PC at hand, how can you write for long just using capitol letters? Cursive writings is the only way to write on paper at reasonable speed.

[Heraclitus]

I once heard a pair of Older People lamenting how they don't even teach kids to write cursive anymore. I joined in, "yeah, and you know what else they don't teach anymore? Cuneiform." I'm sure cursive was very useful before computers became ubiquitous, when people needed a way to write a little faster by hand. At least, that's the justification I've heard for it, that if you actually learn to write that stuff you can go a lot faster because you hardly need to lift the pen.

However, I never got the hang of it and eventually said "screw it," because many of those letters look very little like their more commonly seen print equivalents. The uppercase "G," for example, and both "z" characters. Also, after writing cursive for a while I find a lot of people's handwriting tends to degenerate into this nasty little squiggle that's impossible to decipher. So I say to hell with it; those old people just assumed that, as they went through the bother of learning it, it must necessarily be worth learning.

Discuss.

Well cursive is still usefull for making notes during classes.

[onodera]

Cursive is a good shibboleth, it shows which people didn't do **** at school.
Also, you have to write some applications and official requests by hand in Russia, and they will look like a child had written them if you don't use cursive.

[MRT144]

It is an anachronism.

[Ghaladh]

Come on! Not everything which is "dated" is an anachronism. If you consider the spreading of some bad habits like using slang words or "ghetto's lingo" in the written form ("cuz u know, fella" or s**t like that), by following the logic of keeping what's new and abandoning what's old, everyone should write like that. Would that be an improvement? I don't think so.
Cursive is the more formal, practical and elegant way to write a letter, for instance, provided you have a nice and understandable penmanship. Capitalize suffices when you are writing a shopping list or a reminder to stick on the refrigerator :-D.
If something persists through many generations, sometimes, it's a good thing.

Would you appreciate more a love letter written in cursive or in capitol letters? (I hope that love letters are not considered too "old-fahioned" nowadays, too XD)

[Elok]

No, things which are dated but still useful are not anachronisms, but that's just it--I contest the utility of cursive. I hadn't thought of note-taking, and I guess that's valid, though I rarely needed to take notes in classes and when I did they were brief enough that print did just fine. I imagine students today just use those stupid texting thumbpads or something.

I would appreciate most a love-letter written in my wife's hand, and she uses print. It looks fine to me; cursive is supposed to be more "elegant," but that's just a subjective taste instilled in us by societal preference. I think the supposed elegance fails to make up for the piss-poor legibility.

[Wezil]

I use cursive/shorthand on a daily basis.

[Proteus_MST]

Ehy, actually I write exclusively in cursive... :-S I cannot find the f***ing CAPS LOCK on my f***ing pen!
Stupid jokes apart, if you do not have a PC at hand, how can you write for long just using capitol letters? Cursive writings is the only way to write on paper at reasonable speed.

Same for me.
If I make notes on real paper I almost exclusively write them in cursive.
Don´t think that learning it will ever get outdated as long as there are still enough occasions where it is useful to use it.