Is Typing a Necessary Skill?

cloudwilliam asks: "The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article on how many schools have stopped teaching touch-typing as a necessary office skill and are now often saying that basic computer skills are more important. I'd agree with the latter, but what about typing? I learned to type on an IBM Selectric II (and still own one, as a matter of fact) in the mid-1980s, and the last time I was tested, touch-typed at around 60 wpm. Is this an obsolete skill? With handwriting and voice recognition technologies, is using a QWERTY keyboard with nine out of ten fingers something worth knowing anymore?"

Comments

Re:Two fingered typists are screwed? Hah.

[matth]

That's exactly how I am! Never did the home row thing. I can now type around 130wpm if I really put my mind to it. I use only a few of the figures.. and again I don't think the teachers ever noticed... what's odd is.. I wonder if people can actually type faster when they don't use their full 10 fingers? Are we teaching our kids to type wrong?

Just to prove...

[MrNemesis]

...that good typing skills are directly proportional to intelligence:

FISRT POSPTS!11

(P.S. it's a joke, kids)