Has the simple feat of handwriting become an act of rebellion?

This act that I am performing, writing in cursive, is accomplished less frequently these days.  I recently searched #cursive on twitter, which itself seems an oxymoron, and found numerous claims that cursive hadn’t been used in years, was forgotten, or was abandoned.  

This begs the question, who “needs” to learn the skill of handwriting in the era of the keyboard?  One opinion piece in the Washington Post entitled "Good riddance, cursive" compared the skill of writing cursive to forging horse-shoes, lute playing or jousting.  (At least those skills could come in handy at Renaissance Fairs.)

Therefore, I ask the following questions.   

Did we abandon the bicycle with the advent of the automobile?  Did we abandon painting with the invention of photography?  Aren’t bicycles and paintings some of the joys in life?  Why would we abandon a skill like cursive with the proliferation of the keyboard?  Are we merely rote machines who communicate?

That cursive is no longer being taught in many schools means that the choice of how to communicate is being intentionally limited.  Is the choice that is not dependent upon the consumption of high technology being passed over in the name of efficiency?  Of progress?

Writing cursive is an experience void of advertising pop-ups, critical software updates and background scans.  It cannot be accessed remotely or scanned by internet spiders, the NSA, or antivirus software.  In this post-post-modern era of high tech communication, the simple feat of handwriting is an act of rebellion.

Many of the best works were written longhand, from the U.S. Constitution to Henry Beston’s The Outermost House.  While these works were revolutionary in their own time, is it now the technique of their composition that is unconventional?

Your cursive notes, letter, or draft manuscript are analog.  In the era of digital communication, data centers and wireless networks that are powered by electricity, with their own networks and resource consumption needs, analog may be the last impediment to efficiency or progress.  But hasn’t progress always been a blind faith in an unknown future without questioning whether it is desirable, beneficial or sustainable?

I am going to form my thoughts and write them down by the natural morning light, not the glow of the computer screen.   

In my act of sedition against efficiency and progress, I challenge the dominance of digital communication and the impact that it has in our own future.  I am writing cursive.