Is cursive handwriting outdated?

wut hanwritng?

Speaking of outdated—handwritten Christmas cards? How . . . charming.

Younger people in the workplace are triggered by cursive handwriting because they can’t read it. It really is a problem. it’s really amazing how in one generation we’ve become retards.

I've encountered a mail person who couldn't read cursive- a real liability there. They still write cursive in Europe, with their distinctive style.

People can't read my cursive handwriting because it's messy.

I can read and write but I tend to write a mixture of print and cursive.

Not being able to read cursive is not an indication of intelligence, r3. Do you know how to use an abacus or a slide rule ?

Soon we won’t know how to write at all.

[quote] Speaking of outdated—handwritten Christmas cards? How . . . charming.

Miss OP probably still writes checks in the grocery checkout line. NEVER self checkout, of course.

I still write in cursive because I think it looks much nicer. But yes, there are many younger people who cannot read it.

How can people not read cursive? The letters are practically the same shape as typed letters. I can understand not being able to read messy handwriting, but that applies to whether it's in cursive or not.

I still write the way I was taught. Someone at work saw me writing in my notepad in a meeting and was shocked that I "joined all my letters up". Wasn't everyone taught to write that way at school? It's much quicker because your pen rarely leaves the paper.

They still teach it at school here in the UK because my niece used to have nice cursive handwriting. I had a card off her recently though and she's now printing her letters - probably to fit in at school. Bless.

I am at a loss to understand how an ancestor died, because his 1907 certificate was written in Victorian medicalese script. Otherwise, yes I can read modern cursive, my writing was never very good.

[quote] The letters are practically the same shape as typed letters

Not if you’re doing it right.

I like the shapes that aren’t circles.

Penmanship is so poor these days all handwriting appears to be indecipherable cursive writing. I can't believe time was wasted learning something so useless in my lifetime.

Reddit has lots of posts from young people asking for help reading old genealogical documents written in cursive. Sometimes I can't believe it, because the handwriting is as neat as it is possible for it to be.

[quote] The letters are practically the same shape as typed letters

What’s “typed”?

[quote]Not if you’re doing it right.

Really? Out of that quoted sentence the only letters I'd write differently are g and f. But they're still pretty similar.

R10, are you BILL TAYLOR?

I've worked in a college library for the past ten years. Many times I have to write down a title of a book on piece of paper and ask one of the students to retrieve the book for a patron. Unfortunately, I have to print everything out because none of these Gen Zers understand cursive. Many of my Millennial coworkers can not read my notes in cursive, either.

Around five years ago, an email was sent out by the university's 'Student Affairs' office, asking everyone to write in print and not cursive, if we need t handwrite something because students were complaining. Also, about half the analog clocks which were hanging on the walls in classrooms were removed last summer - students didn't know how to tell time.

How do these folks manage to write their Signature on a document. Even docsign programs will insert script type for you digitally- do these poor souls not recognize their own names anymore?

R18 Who's that, love?

R20 I've seen students PRINT their signatures on paper forms they have to sign - and it's become perfectly acceptable.

I’m an elementary school teacher (currently enjoying 20 minutes of silence at lunch).

Cursive is seldom taught now, but whenever I do bust some out on the board or Apple TV, the kids just use an app to translate it into printed text.

The second graders know how to do this.

NB: Despite cursive falling out of favor, the kids on the whole LOVE learning and practicing it. There’s some kind of mystique therein.

E, G, F, S, Q and Z are all different, plus lower case U, V and W all are quite similar to each other

When you actually use the letters in a flowing script they combine in weird ways.

Perhaps you might be able to decipher cursive text if you were patient, but young people also don’t learn patience any more.

If they have trouble with cursive, can you imagine if they receive an invitation handwritten in calligraphy ?

I work with a 33 year old college educated woman. She cannot write in cursive. I'm assuming she can read my writing. Her handwriting looks like a 10 year olds. If the conversation is not about her or her feelings, there is no conversation.

This is why China is going to take over the world.

With lower case r and s being strange, and the lower case e usually written as just a loop with no slant, those not trained don’t stand a chance.

Outdated?

Cursive handwriting is such a weird hill to die on.

Yes, I have teenaged nieces and nephews who can't read cursive. I found this out when they couldn't read birthday cards or gift tags that I signed in cursive. They also can't read analog clocks. Those skills just aren't taught anymore.

I bet they can’t dial a rotary phone or use a can opener.

They can't use any appliance (washer, dryer, oven, microwave) with a dial on it either - everything has to be push button with a digital read out.

I teach high school and most kids can't read or write it. But they admire their peers who can write in cursive, usually kids from private schools.

[quote] I bet they can’t dial a rotary phone

Not even with a pencil?

I'm salty about the hours wasted in elementary school learning cursive. We had to practice writing our name and address over and over in those lined tablets. My hands would cramp.

They'll start to crave it before too long just like bell bottoms, records, cassette tapes, and whatever else was mundane and ordinary forty or more years ago.

I took architectural classes in high school and adopted the printed style because I thought it looked cool, and pretty much stopped cursive. As an eldercrone, I decided to pick up cursive again. I found that I write more quickly when using cursive, but when I started writing cursive for notes for my French class, I was writing so quickly, that I would make a lot of errors (to me), omitting letters or making a and o too small to differentiate. I had to slow it down to make it legible, and now with practice, can write quickly again. There is something weirdly pleasurable having neat handwriting to me.

A few years ago I asked a kid what a handwritten letter said--I thought he'd be interested. He looked at it and said: "I can't read that. It's in cursive." I was flabbergasted. I didn't realize tings were moving that quickly.

No one is dying on any hill, R30.

It's always been a sign of good breeding, in my opinion. Trashy underclass people have uneven, poor handwriting and resort to block letters in order to make intelligible whatever it is they've jotted down. Civilized people, conversely, ALWAYS have beautiful cursive handwriting that is incredibly neat and pleasurable to read.

Sadly, society has become so degraded that all that's beautiful, graceful and elegant has been mischaracterized as pretentious, classist and discriminatory, just because beauty, elegance and grace require some effort. We live in a world dominated by incompetent imbeciles and sinister crooks, and they've corrupted society to reflect their innate worthlessness, which is downright tragic.

Maybe in the USA, but round the world , cursive is still very much alive.

Though people nowadays MUCH prefer typing than writing.

[quote] Civilized people, conversely, ALWAYS have beautiful cursive handwriting that is incredibly neat and pleasurable to read.

Calling you MARY would be an insult to the Marys.

When I write in cursive these days, which is basically only when I write a check, which these days is never, I have to slowly think out every letter I'm writing like I'm sounding out a foreign word. When I was in the sixth grade back in the 70s I wrote a twenty page paper on Indians of the Pacific Northwest entirely in cursive, every letter perfectly slanted. For my great achievement the gods cursed me

MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY!

We're not Marying, we're shaking are canes.

[quote] I wrote a twenty page paper on Indians

Native Americans!

[quote] shaking are canes.

Cursive is arcane.

GRRRR OUR!

R44 there's no way one can forget cursive, if you did, you must have preferred writing in print.

[quote]r2 Speaking of outdated—handwritten Christmas cards? How . . . charming.

Wait…. I do that!

[quote] we're shaking are canes.

Oh, dear.

Good. It will be the criterion which will allow (or deny) entrance to our Clubhouse.

I have completely lost the ability to handwrite ANYTHING legibly, whether in cursive or proper form. I used to have nice handwriting. Now it's a mess.

I see that Blanche DuBois has entered the chat at R41. Take the paper lantern off the lightbulb sweetie and live a little.

I had heard that learning cursive helps the brain in some important ways, but had to look it up to see how. Some interesting takeaways on how, but here's a summary:

[quote] So what does the act of joining letters together offer the developing brain of children that printing does not? The fluid, continuous motion of cursive writing offers the brain a different form of kineasthetic stimulation that helps facilitate different parts of the brain to develop and integrate, assisting in establishing the connections that enhance memory, attention, learning and emotional responses.

There also this from another site:

[quote] cursive writing trains the brain to learn functional specialization, which is the capacity for optimal efficiency.

Here's another from a third site:

[quote] Another benefit of cursive writing is that it helps students remember information better. Studies have shown that students who take notes in cursive are more likely to remember the information than those who take notes in print.

I learned cursive in the first grade. Honestly, is it that difficult to understand even if you never had formal training?

^^There IS also this from another site

I guess having excellent penmanship is something I've taken for granted. I don't think I've ever had someone say that my writing, cursive or print, is illegible or hard to read.

[quote] Yes, I have teenaged nieces and nephews who can't read cursive. I found this out when they couldn't read birthday cards or gift tags that I signed in cursive. They also can't read analog clocks. Those skills just aren't taught anymore.

What are we turning into– a society of cretins?

When I worked in the American Embassy in London, all social invites used calligraphy. Anyone who could not RSVP, respectively, was not missed.

[quote] I guess having excellent penmanship is something I've taken for granted. I don't think I've ever had someone say that my writing, cursive or print, is illegible or hard to read.

That's because they threw your letter away because they COULDN'T READ IT !!!

The rest of the English-speaking world uses cursive. Our historical documents are also written in it. This is more of the dumbing down of America. We already have “math is racist” assholes. Universities are doing away with exams because trigggered. Cursive handwriting helps brain development. It’s the same reason we used to force children to do math without calculators.

R54, it’s probably due to texting.

[quote] The rest of the English-speaking world uses cursive.

Why?

The purpose of cursive was to speed up writing when almost everything was written by hand.

Nobody needs to write by hand any more.

[quote]Cursive is seldom taught now

Maybe I'm missing something...Are people no longer required to sign documents with their signature?

I wonder if the benefits cited in r56 extend to calligraphy.

I need to focus to have handwriting that another person can read. However, I still prefer it when writing notes to myself than printing. To me, printing taking a lot more effort.

Cursive writing, manual shifting, and dialing a rotary phone…the lost arts. I don’t blame youngsters for what they don’t know. If they weren’t taught it, how would they learn it? Though I do judge them for being asses about it somehow being old-fashioned to know or use these skills.

A signature does not gave to be cursive. Mine’s pretty much a squiggly line.

Besides, people don’t use signatures much any more. Nobody writes checks.

[quote] Our historical documents are also written in it.

No wonder Trump doesn't understand the Constitution!

I loved penmanship in school. It was fun and relaxing and I still enjoy it.

I have to use a check to pay my car loan. The bank charges a $20 fee for online payments.

Once I told my students, "Break is over at a quarter 'til two," and two of them didn't know what that meant.

[quote]Once I told my students, "Break is over at a quarter 'til two," and two of them didn't know what that meant.

Reading an analog clock with hands is apparently another lost skill.

There are hilarious videos of people trying to figure out what time a clock indicates. What makes it truly sad is that the guesses don't even make sense.

I'm afraid for our society.

Is this kind of "lack of understanding" about things like reading an analog clock, dialing a rotary phone and cursive handwriting common in other developed societies outside of America as well?

Cursive is not that difficult to decipher or learn. Young adults should be able to teach themselves in a few hours of YouTube videos.

No, this is not a generational hill to die on. There's no excuse for any educated person not to be able to read the letters their great-grandparents wrote to one another during WWII. Or whenever.

It's not a foreign fuckin' language. It's laziness.

A few years ago, I was sitting in a park writing in a journal 📓. A young man walked by, stopped and watched for a moment and said, “Wow! You’re writing by hand!” When he looked more closely he was even more astonished. “In cursive!!!”

It was kind of sweet and a little unnerving.

When we learned cursive in elementary school I was terrified I would never master it. I still remember that yellow pulpy paper with the blue lines, a dashed line in between two solid lines.

Went to Catholic school through 8th grade and did learn penmanship.

My handwriting has always looked more like print than script (that’s what we said instead of cursive).

My handwriting is legible and large.

I still enjoy handwriting

I can see the value in cursive, but am baffled that people insist that it's necessary or useful to dial a rotary phone. They're virtually nonexistent nowadays, and it's been decades since they were in regular use. Even analog clocks at least are still around.

Apologies to the pencil-dialers, but knowing how to dial a rotary phone is hardly a mark of sophistication.

How do we feel about Speedwriting?

[quote] How do we feel about Speedwriting?

?

A Pennsylvania lawmaker has proposed Cursive training be restored in all public schools.

I’m in my 40s and have only had big-boy white collar jobs since graduating college. I can’t really think of a single time where I needed to rely on something a co-worker wrote by hand, cursive or otherwise; I don’t think I’ve ever invited any co-worker to read anything I wrote by hand apart from maybe a post-it note.

Sunrise, sunset, toots. Today’s youth have as much need for cursive as they need to be able to get to a typewriter repair shop in a hurry.

Where can I find a random number generator?

R81 Speedwriting had ads in the subway "If u cn rd ths u cn gt a gd job." On ad in red marker someone inserted "blo" after "gd."

Last week at work I was helping a 20-year old snowflake Millennial understand some difficult math calculations (easy for me but difficult for Mr. I’m Entitled to a Five Hour Work Week). Well you can imagine how appalled I was when the snot-nosed wokester laughed out loud as I was pulling out my slide rule to demonstrate the calculations. Well, I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank when another Y2K happens and the little hothouse flower no longer has his Palm Pilot to rely on to do all his math for him.

Unsurprisingly he recoils from my beautiful penmanship as though I’d been writing in Sanskrit.

[quote]I'm salty about the hours wasted in elementary school learning cursive.

Was there something more important you had to be doing at age eight?

Palm Pilot?

The only times I ever write anything by hand are my shopping lists and taking notes at work. Other than that, I never really handwrite. I learned cursive as a child in school in the 80s but I've always preferred to print. I can still do cursive if I want to but it seems so outdated to me.

Like the above poster said, my penmanship has suffered because I don't write by hand nearly as much as I did years ago. It used to look halfway decent but now it's terrible.

I've hated analog clocks since I was a child in the 70s and was SO THRILLED when I got a digital watch. Even the allure of Swatch couldn't lure me back to analog.

It breaks my heart to think of how hurt my mother, God rest her saintly soul, would feel were she to see the values (or lack there of) being instilled in the country’s children today. Myspace, promiscuity, fentanyl, gender. It all brings a tear to my eye.

OP- You mean writing in SCRIPT

Why aren't these youngsters being taught to write on cuneiform tablets?

In the 1960s I spent a year in a former French colony that still used the standardized French educational system. Handwriting appeared to be the most important subject, and we used steel-nib pens dipped in an inkwell, and blotting paper. It was written in a book called a 'cahier' that was bound together by sewing, so pages could not be torn out without being noticed. At the end of the term, the cahier was graded.

Now I'm retired and doing online genealogy research, much of which is digitized images of original documents, most of which are in cursive. The quality of the cursive ranges from sublime to abysmal/illegible.

I type very quickly, more quickly than I can write legibly in script.

However, there are some situations where I still prefer writing. I enjoy writing in a notebook, like Moleskine (although I buy the more budget friendly versions with better paper).

It's odd to me that these kids can't read cursive. It's just letters joined together, it's not radically different from printed letters.

R92, are you also R78?

I can usually read it. I'm 32 but we still learned cursive writing in elementary school.

My cursive, I think, is pretty legible. The only "weird" letter would be my lower-case "f."

God I wish I hand nice penmanship, cursive or print.

I subscribe to some Instagram accounts where they do nothing but autistically write out beautiful scripts and practice their penmanship and it's awe inspiring and daunting. Me, I laboriously write out a thank you note and cringe with embarrassment.

[quote] Nobody needs to write by hand any more.

Let me guess, you’re also the one who thinks books should no longer be printed because we have digital.

I can already tell you’re fat and lazy.

[quote] they do nothing but autistically write out beautiful

What?

R100, maybe Rajiv can help.

I'd let Rajiv dip his pen into my inkwell.

The ink in that particular well has been dry for years, R104.

Who hurt you?

California just reinstated cursive back into school curriculum in January.

Good.

"Nobody gonna remember who or what we were anymore, amigos!"

"Whhhhaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!'

R89 My sister was taking Shorthand in high school. Mom wrote shopping lists for her in Gregg.

I have friends who adopted 2 sisters from Russia about 16 years ago, one 3 years older than the other. Once here the older one was taught cursive in school, but when the younger one reached the same level in school they had stopped teaching cursive. The mother had to teach the younger one at home.

I was taught cursive in 3rd grade (in 1960), as it was required learning. These days it seems that many boards of education are endeavoring to graduate low grade morons.

Block letters are for children and analphabetics.

OP - Oh honey, cursive writing isn't the reason no one reads your Christmas cards.

My hand hurts and cramps when I write a letter which is why I now prefer email.

Do other alphabets have a cursive equivalent?

Weve had a law for probably 15 years here in NC that elementary school kids have to learn cursive. A lawmaker proposed it when she received thank you notes from fifth or six graders wrote her for their visit to her office and some didn’t even know which way to orient the lines on the notebook paper.

[quote] didn’t even know which way to orient the lines

Sounds like a hate crime.

[quote]I subscribe to some Instagram accounts where they do nothing but autistically write out beautiful scripts and practice their penmanship and it's awe inspiring and daunting. Me, I laboriously write out a thank you note and cringe with embarrassment.

You should watch some youtube videos on improving your handwriting.

It feels like you're back in grammar school, but the good videos explain the details of letter size, spacing, and such that are the basis for "good" handwriting. It's not simply about stylish letter formation.

^^^also, they usually provide links to lined practice sheets that aid in improving writing.

[quote] Let me guess, you’re also the one who thinks books should no longer be printed because we have digital. I can already tell you’re fat and lazy.

Boy, you’re really smart.

Block letters make you look like the Zodiac Killer

No, R55! I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people!

However, I don't misrepresent things and I don't just say why ought to be true, but what is.

We were told back in the late 80s, when I was being taught cursive, that we had to learn it so when we were in high school and college we could take notes from lectures quickly. It allowed you to write much more quickly than printing and you’d be able to keep up with the lecturer.

I’m not sure how accurate that is in reality but I did have a jock friend/boy crush who always wanted to borrow my notes before a test to copy because he was a printer and had terrible notes.

True story about him: in 9th grade I wondered if he was just friends with me because he needed my help. I was one of the smartest kids and he… wasn’t, even if he was in the accelerated classes.

I always decided to ignore my doubts because I was in puppy love. He was a beautiful, tall baseball jock who was hung huge even at 15, had body hair like a college guy and was an exhibitionist to boot.

We’d go to his house after school to study on days he didn’t have practice after school. Between 3 pm and 5:30 when his mom got home he’d nearly always initiate a mutual jack-off session.

It would start with teasing and some playful hazing that inevitably escalated to him wrestling me to the ground and me quickly pretending to lose. He’d straddle my chest and pin my arms to my sideswith his knees. Once he had me immobilized he’d look down at me and give a big grin as he’d pull his dick out. I’d close my eyes and pretend to resist as he eventually started slapping my cheeks with his semi-flaccid cock, rubbing it across my lips and making fun of me. Telling me how much I really wanted him to open my mouth and suck him off, I’d say how much I hated him and it and to stop, which allowed my tongue to lick as much as I dared while maintaining the illusion.

After he was good and hard, he’d roll off me and we’d lay next to each other and jack off.

He always controlled when and where this happened. I tried once in the middle of the night when we were 16 or 17, sleeping in the same bed at his grandparent’s house, to pretend to be asleep and roll over with my hand cupping his dick. He immediately said “I know you’re not asleep, stop trying to touch my dick.”

As we aged, we stayed friends. When I came out senior year, he was my biggest defenders in a conservative southern town. I was a groomsman at his wedding and am the godfather of his first child.

I know many won’t believe this and I’ll admit that my memories are probably enhanced by replaying them for the last twenty-five or more years but it is still some of the most erotic sex play I’ve ever had and I’d still let him do anything, anytime, anyway, and nearly anywhere, to me.

Thanks for that story about cursive writing.

R124, it’s probably one of the most compelling reasons given on this tread for being able to write in cursive for this crowd.

It can get you young jock dick if you’re lucky!

That was a pretty good story, R123, starting with cursive writing. I'm assuming the guy got married to a woman.

Yes, but every once in a blue moon he’ll “accidentally” text me a juicy dick pic mistakenly meant for his wife, whose name who has the first three letter in common. I’ll text him back joking and tell him that he’s still got it for a 40 year-old. I honestly don’t think he actually is interested in men, if so I’d have made a move years ago.

I chalk it up to a belief that lots of aging, married dads, especially formerly hot alpha jocks like him, still need to hear that they are desirable.

R115, in the twentieth century the Germans used to used a script called Sütterlin. I think it’s use has now all but died out.

[quote] I honestly don’t think he actually is interested in men, if so I’d have made a move years ago.

He's into men. It's not like you guys had a one-off, drunken night. The sexual contact was obviously on *his* terms, not yours. That doesn't make him straight.

Only on DataLounge would a discussion of cursive handwriting turn into a discussion about trysts with arguable bisexuals.

But to use an internet cliche, this is a feature, not a bug.

[quote]Younger people in the workplace are triggered by cursive handwriting because they can’t read it.

No. They can't read it because they are "triggered" by it.

If you are so pampered that you can allow yourself to get into a tizz about every new thing you encounter, then of course you can't come to terms with it. Triggering is an invention (actually, they've imported the term from the world of the neurodivergent) which is designed to keep a very limited, self-satisfied generation in their comfort zone.

When confronted with something like an analogue clock, a map or cursive writing, Gen Z behave just like old people encountering smartphones for the first time. But at their age, you are supposed to have an inquiring mind. Also, not one of those things is difficult to master. If you focussed on each of them for half a day, with a good instructor or the aid of the internet, you'd be laughing.

^^^^^^

Boomer please, RELAX....

We prefer print for our Christmas "cards".

I still write in cursive for my Christmas card’s.

R65 (and others)

I write by hand all of the time, for work, for things I need to do. I honestly feel it organizes my frame of mind better.

I’m a millennial but couldn’t imagine not writing in cursive and with a fountain pen. It just flows beautifully and is faster and far more satisfying.

Heck, I just wish I could post online in cursive.

[quote]I still write in cursive for my Christmas card’s.

Oh, dear.

Go try reading Chaucer manuscripts, or American census records from 1850, or even a paragraph hand-written last week by a Frenchman, then continue bitching straight-faced about how Gen Z have trouble understanding the penmanship you were taught in school in the 1950s.

𝒞𝒶𝓃 𝓎☯𝓊 𝑔𝓊𝓎𝓈 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈¿

I use parchment and quill for all my correspondence. I seal my private letters shut with wax melted by my monogram stamp, which has been heated for a few minutes to glowing over a lighted candle.

I know I’ll get roasted, and I’m ashamed to even admit it, but I write exclusively in print / block letters.

[quote] Last week at work I was helping a 20-year old snowflake Millennial understand some difficult math calculations (easy for me but difficult for Mr. I’m Entitled to a Five Hour Work Week). Well you can imagine how appalled I was when the snot-nosed wokester laughed out loud as I was pulling out my slide rule to demonstrate the calculations. Well, I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank when another Y2K happens and the little hothouse flower no longer has his Palm Pilot to rely on to do all his math for him.

Somebody here thinks she’s S. J. Perelman.

What's Meghan thinking?

𝓘 𝓱𝓸𝓹𝓮 𝓷𝓸𝓽.

[quote]Go try reading Chaucer manuscripts, or American census records from 1850, or even a paragraph hand-written last week by a Frenchman, then continue bitching straight-faced about how Gen Z have trouble understanding the penmanship you were taught in school in the 1950s.

The difference is that every generation up to Gen Z was taught to write. It might have been different writing from earlier generations, but it was writing. I understand that with screens they don't need to write as much as previous generations, but it is still a basic fine motor skill and it develops early neuron connections between brain and hand that are useful in other fine skills such as embroidery, jewelry making, painting of both kinds, precise carpentry, etc.

Mind you, I am also bothered that they are not routinely taught touch-typing. The education system has no excuse for that lapse: at least not in schools where everyone can afford a laptop. On any keyboard bigger than a phone's, it is very much faster and more efficient than any other method.

[quote]What's Meghan thinking?

Right now she's thinking about how Kate's post-cancer announcement surge in popularity may eclipse her forever.

R115 Ukrainian and other languages using the Cyrillic alphabet have a cursive version as well. For some letters, the cursive version is quite different from the printed version. An example of this is the letter т (t). In cursive it looks like an English cursive m.

I was told that the print version of the alphabet was developed specifically for commercial printing.

Can you imagine the whining they’d do if they had to write in Mandarin or Cantonese? I used to get beautifully written receipts with my Chinese food deliveries.

Speaking of Chinese, this is an interesting answer at Quora to someone's question about writing in Chinese these days.....

[quote] Sadly, society has become so degraded that all that's beautiful, graceful and elegant has been mischaracterized as pretentious, classist and discriminatory, just because beauty, elegance and grace require some effort.

Amen.

How do languages that use pictures instead of alphabets (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) work on keyboards and phones?