How many people have actually used a typewriter?... - Johnny Worthington

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Johnny Worthington

How many people have actually used a typewriter? What is the average 'cut off age'?

July 8 from IM - Comment - Like - Share

Franklin Pettit, Pete Delucchi, Dan Morrill AKA Techwag and 77 other people liked this

I used one until university. so, cut-off was, what, mid 80's? - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

i used one very frequently until sometime in 1994. - Joe Silence is Dr. Teeth!

I've used one, many many years ago. Probably late 80s - Glenn Slaven

I used a typewriter once when I was fairly young, around the beginning of the nineties. We had a "modern" one and I was curious to see it in action. I made a typo in the first word. - Jon, the Beartato of '10 from Android

You will probably still find them in use today in a lot of law firms. - Alex Scoble

My dad had one when I was little, and I managed to type a paper or two on it. Nothing major. - Carlton Hackett

typewriters are still used as backups in case our 486 pc's die at the firehall .. - johnpiercy

I used one in elementary and Jr high. Some in a work training job that I had with OC County in Jr High. - CW™

my first two were manuals, my last one was an electric Smith Corona from the early 1970s. the only reason i stopped using it in 1994 was becos a cousin of mine walked off with it one day. - Joe Silence is Dr. Teeth!

We had a typewriter at home until the early 1990s. I used to type opening paragraphs to the Tolkien-rip off fantasy novel that I never finished on it. My dad may actually still use one in his office on a daily basis even though he has a computer and a printer, too. - Victor Ganata

We had one of those big green IBM ones that I use to type my assignments out on until about the 90s. Just strange that my nephews (8 and 5) have never, ever seen one or used it. - Johnny Worthington from IM

I remember using my dad's when I was six or seven (mid-1980s). And when I worked at a bank, we used one to type up a few forms that had carbon copies in them. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

I love typewriters. - Mona Nomura

Probably early 90's in typing class - Rodfather

I took a typing class over the summer in '92. That's the first and last time I used a typewriter for any length of time. I took a typing test on a typewriter when I interviewed for a temp agency in late '94. I think that was the last time I ever touched one. - Lindsay is in 20-ten

Very early 90's - Mo Kargas

I've used one before. but yea. early 90s - John Wang

I used a typewriter in the late-80s / early-90s. Parents thought my bro and I (hunt-and-poke typists) would best learn to type and that was in the days of typing class. Even though we needed to learn typing such that we'd type on the computer better. - Wirehead

I did, I'm 27. - Joshua Schnell

My Dad used to type up his tests for his students back in the mid-80's. I used his typewriter a couple of times to type up papers before we got our first computer around 88 or so. I'm 32 now. - Give 'Em DBizness

When we donated dad's library we also included his beloved Selectric. They sent it back... - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

I used one until I got decent word processor software for my C-64, around 1989. My sister actually took a word processor to college her first year; second year, it was a PC. - Ladybug Heather

I took typing in 1989. Never used one again after the class, because I took computers the following semester - Matthew DeVries

I learned to type well before computers. - Janet

I had one when I was kid, early to mid 90's. - Sarah Peterman

I've used one. I'm 22. My dad had some old manual ones. - Aaron Hood from BuddyFeed

32 here as well. Used one to write up book reports. - Arlan Koizumi

I worked at a tiny 50 watt AM radio station in high school, and we used typewriters. I am 33. - Michelle Martinez

I'm 28 and I used one quite often as a kid. - Joe Pierce

High school typing class -- 1988 - Christopher A Carr

High school typing classes: 1960-63 Best thing I ever did (though I hated it then). I can fly round the keyboard, touch-typing too. Cut-off when I got my first Mac (1984). - Kate Foy

I'm 24 and I remember using one a lot as a kid... I don't even think I used it to type schoolwork, I just liked typing random stuff on it for fun. Also, when I worked at an elementary school in 2004/2005, we had a word processor in the office that we used frequently. - Penguin It's Cold Outside

I was using one at work in the early 90s. Maybe '92 at the latest. - CAJ, somewhere else

I've played with one before but never actually used it for anything. - Andrew Trinh from IM

The interesting bit is when you try going back to a typewriter from a computer. Messes with your head! - Kate Foy

Used one and I am 43, but never gone back to try and use one since moved to the computer. - Lyndon Washington

I'm 43 too and learned on one. Used them half way through college, and then they made us start using WordStar word processor. Dot commands, FTW?! - Rick Cogley

When I started working at Social Services in 1997 we used ballpoint pens and carbon paper. - m9m, Crone of FriendFeed

I used one until 1995. Only used one once since then. - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

I kind of want an old skool mechanical typewriter (Although I have no place to put it) so I can preserve the antiquity as long as possible. - Wirehead

Although, I think I want a proportional spaced typewriter most of all. - Wirehead

I have one in my bedroom. Though, it's for fun. All of my work was always done on a computer. The typewriter was for zines or creative projects. I like the click click click. - joey

Used one regularly until I was 23 or so. I used one infrequently at my last job, some grants are required to be typed but people don't supply e-copies. Madness. - pea

I used one when I was at college. I was a "secretary" for the undergrad music department. It was a workstudy - jamar78

I used one as a kid, maybe 3 or 4. It was cool, but huge and not as cool as Nintendo. - Mike Nayyar

Took typing class first year of high school and used one sporadically in the 60's. Not since though. - Brian Sullivan

I used one up until 1987 or so when I got a computer with a printer. My mom had an IBM Selectric that she was quite proud of. - Joey Gibson

1990. My mother had one never used one since. - M F

I used one in the mid-90's, didn't get far with it. I'm almost 20. - Jimminy Fuller

I certainly have! And I'm only 25! - Amy℠

Many times. I'm 27. - Bec Rowe @d0tski

< used. 25 - mjc

I still use one occasionally at my parent's office when they want me to type an envelope up or something. - ronin

I used one a LOT in the 80's. I just used one two weeks ago as well. It felt very quaint. - Jeremy Brooks

I took typing 101 in 1969, then took one to USC until 1973. - Russellreno

I just almost had an argument with my husband over his wanting to give away my old Brother typewriter........just seems wrong not to have one in the house. You know, for ransom notes and stuff. - suzanne

yep, learned how to type on a typewriter in the early 80s - Herb Hernandez from iPhone

I grew up with typewriters (and was hit by lighting while typing on one in my parent's basement). When I started college in 1982, there was only one computer among 40 students in my dorm. By my senior year 1985-86, there were 0.75-1.00 computers/student (helped by the Lisa/Mac release in 1984). In the 1990s at UCLA, we used typewriters occasionally to type on forms, but I left UCLA in 2000 and haven't used a typewriter in about 9 years. - Mitchell Tsai

I took typing in high school (82-85) and I owned a typewriter while I was in college. I didn't use it much because we got Macs at my college in 85-86. I think that typewriter is still at my parents' house. - ha3rvey (wants confit)

One of my friends, Adrienne Su, http://users.dickinson.edu/~sua (now Poet-In-Residence at Dickinson College) went with me to the Harvard Bookstore browsing. I heard a strange music coming from the typewriter area. Adrienne was typing soooo fast and so musically - just dreamy. I've never heard anyone type like that since. - Mitchell Tsai

I learned to type on one in like 1990. - Brett Kelly from iPhone

Many friends typed papers in college for extra money. My roommate Howard Pollack was typing in the dark one day (on a manual typewriter), when the four of us turned on the lights to se what Howard was typing. He had been typing a transcript of our conversation (script-writing style) in real-time! Me, I never took typing in high school...ended up being a 40 wpm hunt & pecker... - Mitchell Tsai

I used my mothers as a kid, but I actually bought one for my first wife when she graduated college. - Ian May

Did in my high school typing classes, but not after that. I'm 32 - Haggis (Sean Loyless)

I learned to touch type on mechanical typewriters in 1986 at school (no Australia is not a third world country!). Electric typewriters were introduced in 1987. But I have never used a typwriter at work since then. - Matt G

Used one right up until the end of high school. - Steven Perez

I played with my grandparent's when I was a kid, but I had computers most of my life. - Neal Jansons

Typing class, high school. Electric, but an actual typewriter. Yes. - Micah Wittman

Early 80s - maybe 1982 or 83-ish? We actually had our first office PC hooked up to a typewriter as the printer because the typewriter type looked better than the dot-matrix type. Naturally, once I met the Mac in 1987, I never went back. - MaryB, BrandingBroadOfFF

I used my grandparents' one when I was about 8, so 1993. - Mitch

In the 90s, we dug out the old Olivetti and set it up for our daughter as a toy. She's now 19 and thinks of her MBP pretty much as a body part. - MaryB, BrandingBroadOfFF

I actually used to own one and used it in college, until I bought an Osborne computer and Epson RX80 dot matrix printer my senior year. I think I gave my typewriter to my younger sister when she was in college. For some reason I never asked for it back ;-) - Jeff P. Henderson

I used to sell them when I worked at Staples. I worked there until 2005ish and still sold them. I used one as a kid too. I'm 31 - Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ

I have a '40s-vintage Royal sitting on display in my living room, and I type letters on it from time to time just for the fun of it. It works beautifully, and I find the mechanical feel and sound very satisfying. But then, I'm a bit odd. - Bren -- Making Contact

I got a C in typing class in middle school. (35) - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

I have. (32) - Louis Gray

I first learned in high school about office machines and one in particular was the wondrous typewriter, I have not used one in awhile but at the very least I do remember. And really sometimes a simple typewriter can be a great thing, so I have used it but I don't make it a point to use it regularly. - Rem-Sleep w Ray

I actually did my college thesis on a typewriter (all 120 pages of it) - that experience was what drove me into computers - never looked back since then. - ian kennedy

I owned a manual typewriter and learned to touch type on it in 7th grade in 1982. My mom may still have it and I don't remember much about it, but I can picture it in my head. It's really fuzzy though, like my memories of Shell Beach, can't put my finger on it... - Adrian

I learnt to type on a typewriter way back in '67 - one of the best things I ever learnt - srsly - I'm still really young -] - Chris Loft

I did a typing course at school. The famous Scheidegger typing course. I was 12 or 13 in those days. So that was around '76/'77. It's probably the best thing I learned at school, because I'm still enjoying what I've learned then. - Ton Zijp

I used to use a typewriter, and I'm 24. - Will Higgins™

Some involved in air traffic in the 90s still used typewriters. - Bernie Goldbach

I have, in the 90's I am 31. Also, I believe the high school office where my mother works still has a couple that they use for adding names to certificates and the like. I will double check this with her tomorrow. - Rachel Lea Fox

I learned how to type on a manual typewriter, but haven't used one since maybe 1986. - Bonnie Foster

i'm 23, used one briefly when growing up not because we didnt have a computer (had some P1 box and a Mac Centris) but because i liked the cool mechanical sounds it made. ;-) - Paul Stamatiou

What's a typewriter? ;-P - Jeff P. Henderson

We were taught to use a typewriter at school - that was actually the only time we ever used a typewriter, for most of us, since computers were already taking over (except perhaps for form filling). We had the typewriter class and a computer class the same year, and the typewriter class did not even help for computer typing because it was on the horrible french key-layout whereas our computers had swiss keyboards - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

I have. 29 years old now. Last time was probably 2 years ago to label envelopes (I think printers remain bad at this). - Sajida H Khan

I used one many Moons ago but only because my parents had an old one at home. - Kol Tregaskes

I had, I'm 26. It was my mother's, she used it at school. But I remember her using it at work in the late 80's too. - albameccanica - Arianna

I had to type the personal info on my college applications (in 1996) but I got my Mom to help because I was afraid I wouldn't line things up correctly. - Shannon Jiménez

I did, back in the 80's as well. - David Cook - 2010!!!

I learned to type using a typewriter during high school (mid 90's). - Kevykev

I saw one once & think i tried it, but it was like 15 years ago or so - immaterial

Yes, up until 1994, I think, I often helped my father type academic papers on our typewriter. I didn't have a computer of my own until early 1996, I believe. Used campus labs from fall of 1995 until about February. - Scott of Two Countries

I used one up until about 1988. It was an IBM Selectric. - DGentry

I'm 23 - I have seen them, but never used for anything. - Rich

I'm 36 and used one. We were tought type writing at school, but that ended in the mid 80's when the school got computers and we had to learn Basic - Martin Liechti from fftogo

i used one in jr high and part of high school in the early 80s before i saved up enough to get a printer for my apple ][e - Imabug

used one till late 90's. I found it kind of cool for "creative writing"... :)) - diego morelli

Wow.. I actually used one in junior high.. I still remember the smell of burning oil! Gee.. that was in the early 80's I think? - Sean

I'm 26 used one until HS. - Amber, Random Time Lord

I'm 41 I owned one. Used it in HS and college. - Gunny doesn't side-hug™

im 21 and own 3 typewriters - Anthony Feint

I used one in high school typing class, circa 85, that I took as an elective to better learn how to type on the computer keyboards I had for the 4 years previous. My dad used typewriters in his small business until about 89-ish when he switched over to the wordprocessing unit he had used at home for year or so prior. Actually slow for him given he had car phones when they were huge radio units, a pocket TRS-80 in the early 80s ( http://www.trs-80.com/wordpre... ), and such. - Michael W. May

i took it in high school around 1990. that was probably the last time i did - (jeff)isageek

I learned to type on one when i was 11 or so, which was in 1996. It was a very modern one, as it could store documents typed and such. I only used it for that class though. - Tom Ribbens

I'm 36, typing class in HS used electric typewriters as PC's were too expensive at the time. Had IBM "lugables" for computer class :) Teachers in school did not like the printout from dot matrix printers so even though I had a computer at home since about 1981, we still used typewriters throughout school for reports etc. - W_B_K

I learned to type before I could hold a pencil. Well, the 2-finger hunt-and-peck method of typing. I'm 38 now... I think I regularly used a typewriter for things until sometime around 1987. - Nine

i did,since i was 9 to my late teens. no computer and a writer's spirit . I'm 31 now, the typewriter belonged to my grandfather, who gave it to me before he died. It's one of my most important possessions. - Alexandre Gamela from twhirl

I taught myself to type on one, so once we got a computer I used to bash the keys really hard. We got our first pc with printer in 1986, but I still used the typewriter for letters and stuff after that til the ribbons ran dry and we couldn't buy replacements - probably around 1990 I think. - Mellissa

I used to carry around a portable electronic one in my briefcase that I'd take to high school with me every day. - Thomas Hawk

I'm 40. My mom had a typewriter, I used it once or twice just to see what it was like to type on... - Tad

I'm 50. Actually took typing in high school. That was mid-70's. - Norma Dennis

I'm 37 and used a typewriter in my middle school typing class. Had a computer at home too though. I feel like I'm on the cusp. - Graham English from iPhone

I have attempted to use a typewriter before. My typing career suffered a major setback when I was kicked out of the typing teachers class on the first day of school. I decided after that that taking typing would not be a good idea. - Alan Simpson

by the way check these out, this picture was taken a month ago or so: http://twitpic.com/7t485 - Alexandre Gamela

I am 30, and used to use it - Shevonne

28 and I used my dads at home for school work when I couldn't get time on the computers at school until we got a computer in 94. The typewriter even had a delete key! - alphaxion

I'll admit it ..... not the age part :) - Charlie Anzman

I've used one. Also used a word processor until 95 or so. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

i learnt to type on one. Used one until 2nd year uni (1991) when we got all cool with computers. - Sue

I still use the old typewriter for post cards and special mailings (USPS) found extra ribbon on ebay. - Tricia

I had one until my third year of college, in 1989 . . . then a Commodore something or other (128?) - William Harryman

I am 43 and I used one up until 1999, which was when I got my first computer. I have it stored away in the basement. Should I ever need one for filling out a form, I'll go down there and drag it upstairs. It's a big heavy machine with a built in word processor. I stocked up on print & correction cartridges awhile back, just in case they stop making/selling them. - April Russo (app103)

I'm 28, and I last used a typewriter about 4 years ago. Usually I own one, and now that you've posted this I want to go buy another. Love them! - LAST DAY OF WORK

23 but my grandma had one, probably is still around, my impressions: the loudest keyboard I've ever used - Dobromir Hadzhiev

I stopped using a typewriter completely in '85 when I got my first PC... with an extra keyboard that allowed it to double as a typewriter! LOL! - Arleen Boyd

used one at college, sometime in the late 80's haven't used one since though - unicomunica

I used one until probably 1993 - Steve C

I still have a typewriter. - Morton Fox

I did and we had a mandatory typing class Freshman year of HS. :-) - Mathew A. Koeneker

I learned to type on one. Around 1989-90. - Derrick

The last time was when I was a kid in the 70's. Then the ZX81 happened... - Andy Bold

at my grandparents. probably mid-80's or so. - SolidSmack

I still have to use a typewriter. It's a monster. IBM Wheelwriter 30 Series II - MicahBear78

I had to take typing in high school. I got a 42. On a 100 point scale. It was definitely not my sport. I'm 44, btw. - Kevin Pedraja

i have! I'm 35. I wish I still had one. - Anna Lynn M.

I have never seen a functional typewriter. I'm 22. - Garin Kilpatrick

We had the opportunity to learn how to type when we were young at school, age 11 I guess. That's how I actually learned typing! - Kris

I've used 'em, even had a junior high typing class which I did horribly at, but surprisingly learned rudimentary skills. Remember having to retype entire pages every time I made an error on a paper that was due the next day. I used to always seem to be miserably sick the nights before papers were due, and miraculously cured the next day when I turned the paper in.. I'm about 43. - motownmutt

through 92. got my first puter in 93. - Matt Soreco

I took typing in 9th grade. Glad I did too. Now can I remember margins? Not like I can in Word... - Mike Lewis

I'm 27 and I used one in elementary school for my reports - Shey, Jamaican of FF

In my senior year of college (1982-1983), I decided to write my undergraduate thesis using nroff and some macros, rather than typing the whole thing on a typewrite. - John E. Bredehoft

I had an electric typewriter when I was in college - but I didn't use it for much more than applications when I started using emacs and a dot matrix printer in 1983. - Bill Sodeman

Does a MOD-40 Teletype count? - Dan Morrill AKA Techwag

I learned to touch-type on a manual (non-electric) typewriter in junior high school in 1986. Born in 1973. - Kevin Fox

Related question: when was the last time you used a pencil sharpener? - Paola Bonomo

1st used typewritter in 1988 at highschool typing classes, actually five years after using an Apple at primary school in 1983 - Yant

Me. Played with parents' one in the '80s, used one for work right into the early 2000s (was a bank teller, had to type to make cashier's checks and money orders). - Kamilah Gill