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I can touch type at around 80-90 words per minute.
I remember sharing an office with my best friend when we worked together. On my first day, I was banging away on the keys writing out an email. When I finished, I turned around and she was just sitting staring at me with her mouth wide open.
You type SOOOOO fast.
I had never really noticed. That's how I had always typed since I learned how to touch type in year 7 with Mavis Beacon Teaches Touch Typing in the brand new computer lab at school. I would spend hours at the keyboard practicing.
And it paid off, because when I went to get my first job as a receptionist, I didn't have many skills except I could type at 90 words per minute.
Learning how to touch type at speed is one of the foundational skills that any digital native can have. The faster you type the easier it is to keep up with your thoughts and get them down on the page.
An average person can type between 30-40 words per minute. But to keep up with your thoughts you're aiming for 60-80 words per minute
I don't buy into this narrative that handwriting is better than typing. I've now reached a stage in my life where I've been typing for longer than I have been handwriting. I very rarely do any handwriting and typing feels so natural to me to capture my thoughts.
I wonder about these studies about handwriting if they will shift as digital natives become more comfortable with typing than handwriting?
