For a generation that has grown up glued to their screens, you would expect Gen Z to be masters of all things electronic.
However, experts now suggest that the online generation might be losing their ability to type on a keyboard.
As smartphones and tablets eclipse laptop and desktop computers, many are concerned that touch typing might become a forgotten skill.
In April, Gen Z icon Billie Eilish told Rolling Stone: ‘I never learnt to type because I wasn’t that generation, and now I regret it.’ So, how fast can you type? Take the test below to find out.
Over the last 25 years, the number of young people taking typing courses has fallen drastically.
According to the Wall Street Journal, this may be driven by a reduction in the number of schools offering ‘keyboarding’ classes.
In the UK, schools can decide to offer a national Ofqual certificate in typing but there is no requirement that this be offered.
Despite typing skills being described as ‘desirable’, touch typing is not part of the national curriculum.
Prestigious schools like Brighton College and Eton reintroduced touch typing to the curriculum, but there is no official data on how many students across the country are taught this skill.
Teachers are also concerned that Gen Z’s increasing use of touchscreen devices might be making matters worse.
Instructure, a Utah-based company which produces platforms for students to upload work, found that 39 per cent of assignments submitted in May were written on an online device rather than a computer.
Melissa Loble, chief academic officer at Instructure told the Wall Street Journal: ‘What students want to do is do the work on their mobile devices.
‘We have two generations experiencing the teaching, and the learning, in a very different way. That’s alarming to me.’
Since one of the biggest predictors of typing speed is time spent typing, a reduction in computer use is likely to produce less proficient typers.
In 2019, a study of 37,000 typers conducted by Alto University and the University of Cambridge found that smartphone typing speeds are now catching up with computer speeds.
Their study found that the so-called ‘typing gap’ between smartphone and computer speeds is now just 25 per cent.
