> one 2007 study measured a small group of 21 college students and found their average typing speed was an abysmal 12.2 words per minute
That blows my mind. That's less than a tenth the speed I type at. How do they get anything done??
That blows my mind. That's less than a tenth the speed I type at. How do they get anything done??
They weren't typing predetermined sentences. They were instructed to come up with a story based on some pictures and write it down. They weren't bottlenecked by typing speed, but rather by pauses for thought between words.
OTOH, do typing classes even exist anymore, are are we to assume that kids will just learn it by osmosis? When I was in high school I took typing class. On a real typewriter. And it was a manual typewriter...that we could only use in a blinding snow storm while walking uphill. Anyway, I type around 100 wpm now which I attribute to that typing class. Had I just been left to my own devices to hunt-and-peck my way around, I doubt I'd be anywhere near that speed.
I learned on a manual as well. But by using a book. It took about 3 weeks. I actually stopped at the part where you practice numbers (and regret it to this day).
"that we could only use in a blinding snow storm while walking uphill"
I was lucky to be able to convince a college instructor to allow me to bring in the manual typewriter so I could type the answer to an essay instead of using one of the blue books. Same blinding snow storm that day!
We learned that in typing class, but I never did "get" the number row. Bane of my existence to this day. I mean, mostly hit what I want but it's not thoughtless tapping like the rest of the keyboard. Don't know if it's my dainty little fingers or what the deal is.
> Same blinding snow storm that day!
Nah, probably not the same storm. Blinding snow storms were so common back then, it just seemed like it we shared the same weather pattern. Not like the constantly pleasant weather these kids today grow up with.
Edit for vanity: 60-70wpm tested. I'm pretty sure I can type faster than that sometimes.
You mean, "all that time in front of a keyboard - and mouse." GUIs and mouses (and now, touch screens) have made computer interaction largely keyboardless - most people would rather push the rodent around or touch the screen than make use of keyboard shortcuts, and interfaces are designed in that direction so it's not so surprising that people aren't learning how to type faster despite increased computer use.
Unfortunately, in my experience, yes. I spent years using a computer doing virtually everything with it including programming before I finally got fed up with not being able to touch type. I forced myself to not look at the keys and type. It worked. (How could it not?) Later on, I had a typing class as well, but by that time I was already an excellent typist. For the kids that are less motivated however, I think they'd be stuck where I was before I decided to force myself to learn it. Since typing classes are so rare, this means that they won't even be forced to learn it (a good thing).
I don't think anyone is truly computer literate unless they can touch type. It's an essential skill, really, and while one can get by without it, the experience is hardly equivalent. So I wonder, with all the focus on CS classes in high schools, where is the focus on typing? After all, call me prejudiced, but I would never work with a programmer or writer who couldn't touch type. To me, that shows disdain or lack of interest for the profession.
most people never actually learn to type correctly, they just keep doing the wrong thing forever. of course, once you actually learn to do it right, you're practicing all the time and after several years you can easily get up to and past 120wpm if you sit in front of a computer all day.
On the flip side, I can see that for kids these days it must be much harder to learn to type. So much of their time is spent using computers, and so even spending an hour a day on touch-typing lessons is going to pale in comparison to the amount of time spent not touch typing because you don't know enough yet to touch type all the time. And that has to make the barrier much harder to overcome.
That's just asinine. When I was in high school 30 years ago, if a school had insisted that all reports be typewritten and yet did not offer typing classes, I'm pretty sure some job losses would have occurred. What other tools shall we insist that children use without instruction? Hand them pencils in 1st grade and demand that they produce legible communication that they're left to just figure out on their own? Here's a band saw for shop class, have a bookshelf done by end of day?
Granted I'd imagine this could be a problem with funding for computers in certain areas, but I'd at least expect them to have typing classes early on if they are also expecting you to work with computers in other classes. This is one of those skills that is very beneficial to start on early.
My father types nearly every day and can barely do 20 wpm.
Really? I don't find it that shocking at all that most people might type at a tenth of the speed a programmer can type. I'm sure a chef could express the same awe at my inefficiency when making Kraft Dinner.
I suppose it's testament that for all the fun of being an autodidact, there are some skills that really do benefit from tutoring (I'd argue most skills do, but the challenge is to find a good tutor...).
But 12 wpm is basically a real handicap -- it is below reasonable speed. Consider that a short essay is maybe 10 pages, and needs a minimum of three drafts... that's 25 pages or so. 8-12 hours of just typing for 10 pages?
I'd say 30 wpm is a reasonable low-bar average.
Same here. I drastically improved my typing speed thanks to internet chat rooms. My parents first got home internet when I was in high school in the late 90s, and my typing speed went from ~28wpm (thanks to a 6-week 9th grade typing class) to 60+ wpm in a week, after spending only an hour or so online each day. I had to type at least that fast to keep up with the conversation, so my brain was forced to acclimate.
I do it myself all of the time. It seems to be the result of the way our minds make associations, and an inability to properly 'empathize' with others, that is, to view the action from their perspective of being relatively unpracticed at it. This is where, in fact, I think a large part of 'imposter syndrome' stems from.
I personally have difficulty viewing the ability to launch/maintain web applications, provision a server for deployment, write SQL queries, etc, etc, etc... as anything particularly 'novel' or requiring ability; and indeed, in the context of this web-site, it isn't.
In the real world though, there's a dearth of 'incompetence', but unless you actively interact with a menagerie/distributed-sampling of society, it is very easy to convince yourself that the average person is as competent/intelligent as the people you surround yourself with on a daily basis. The fact that the internet allows everyone in your field to collaborate only serves to exacerbate the situation.