Students' using computers to write is natural

Chinese young people surf the Internet at an Internet cafe in Huaian city, East China's Jiangsu province. [Photo/IC]

A survey of 500 college students in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, who were born in the 1990s, found that about 70 percent cannot write Chinese characters very well, 83.2 percent of them attributed this to computers, smartphones and other devices. While many worry young people are losing the ability to write characters, Tang Yinghong, a psychology professor wrote in a column in Beijing News that we should adapt to new technologies:

The survey result is hardly surprising because we have rather few opportunities to write nowadays. Teaching in a college, I show Powerpoint slides to my students, while they submit their homework via e-mail; even the exams can be done on computer. There is never any need for us to use a pen and paper.

Actually, the worry about fading calligraphy skills began 100 years ago, when people started to use pens instead of Chinese brushes. There were also calls for the use of Chinese brushes to be defended in the 1910s and 1920s. Time has shown such worries were unnecessary.

As time passes, fewer people will use a pen and paper. Computers have been widely used in China since 2005 or so; while somebody born in the 1970s might have used pen and paper for daily communication for 40 years, someone born in the 1990s might have used them for 20 years.

Further, some people born after 2006 will seldom have touched pen and paper, as they will have been using computers and tablets since early childhood. For them, "tradition" means a computer, not a pen. It is unfair to impose our longing for our past upon them.

Therefore, please do not worry any more about the survey result. Society is progressing and we need to march forward, too.