The New York Times has given Nick Bilton the space in its Fashion & Style section to announce that the pen is dead. Yes, linkbait.
This is the same Nick Bilton who doesn’t like e-mails that say thanks, who thinks you should use Google Maps to get to someone’s house rather than ask for directions, who communicates with his mother “mostly through Twitter,” and who taught his father not leave voice mails for his son.
I guess Nick Bilton doesn’t believe in thank-you notes either. Or love letters.
I found my way to the Times piece by way of MK’s Taking Note Now. I like what MK says about Bilton and paper and pens:
Obviously, he himself has no need for such things. But why should unfashionable people follow his shallow approach to writing and living?Related reading
All OCA paper and pen posts (Pinboard)
comments: 2
It's not so much the decline of the pencil and pencil that appalls me, Michael; it's the concomitant demise of handwriting. I can't quite make out from Nick Bilton's article whether he is advocating the use of the finger for WRITING on a screen, but insofar as I manage to do this, the results, atrocious as they are, are only possible if you already know how to write with a pen.
Besides, think of the unemployment among graphologists.
It sounds as if the only handwriting he does on a screen is signing his name. He evidently doesn’t frequent the restaurants I frequent, all of which require a signature on paper when using a credit card.
Yes, graphologists everywhere will be in need of a hand.
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