In a recent study by a Norwegian university, researchers found that 40% of students have lost the ability to write handwritten texts. Turkish professors are experiencing similar issues with their students, who belong to Gen Z.
Update, 01/23/2025: Today, January 23rd, is “Handwriting Day” because John Hancock would have had a birthday. For this reason, we have updated our article again and adjusted it to the current date.
Here is the insight: As IGN Brazil reports, members of Generation Z are losing the ability to write by hand and express themselves clearly. These are skills that humanity has possessed and passed down for 5,500 years.
In an article from the Turkish site Türkiye Today Professor Nedret Kiliceri discusses that even university students lack knowledge of basic writing rules. Students have been born into a digital world. They lack any practice in writing handwritten texts:
The handwriting of the students is either slanted down or up, and their handwriting is often illegible. Previously, students were more accustomed to writing with paper and pen, but today they have been dealing with screens and keyboards from an early age. This affects their handwriting, especially in secondary school and university.
Icons like Mark Zuckerberg are seen as trendsetters for today’s youth:
Gen Z only writes single sentences, no more paragraphs
What do the problems look like? In addition to difficulties in putting texts on paper, there is another problem: the young people lack the knowledge to formulate more complex thoughts in texts.
As the professor explains: Students avoid long sentences and no longer write meaningful paragraphs. They prefer individual, stand-alone sentences over paragraphs that bundle contextually related sentences. Students also come to university without pens and use keyboards for everything. The professor sees a social media influence in this:
Students nowadays prefer to convey basic information in few words. They try to summarize ideas in less than 10 words.
Due to social media, Gen Z is used to expressing themselves briefly
What do the students say? One surveyed student from Turkey sees the problem in the way school functions. She says that since elementary school, they have only written tests but never essays unless absolutely necessary.
Moreover, social media has its own language; everything is shortened and expressed with emojis.
Another student adds: She used to write a lot, but now hardly at all. And skills that you don’t use just wither away.
What does the study say? In a study by the Norwegian University of Stavanger 585 students from 33 schools were examined. 40% of students have lost the ability to write texts by hand as a result of digitalization.
However, there is also good news: The ability to summarize concepts in less than 10 words has increased. We deal with other problems of Gen Z in this article on MeinMMO: Gen Z is currently facing two big problems, one of which cannot be solved without help
