Eliminate the QWERTY keyboard?

None of us was even born when this keyboard style was first adopted in 1873. The reason the letters were placed as they were (rather than in alphabeticalorder like the early typewriters) was to solve a problem that existed at that time. Some people wound up typing so fast that the mechanical rods attached to the keys would stick to each other. To resolve this, the QWERTY keyboard was developed. It placed keys in such a manner that the most used letters were spaced out so that the rods were less likely to clash into each other when typing. This keyboard layout became standard with the popularity of the Remington typewriter which was the first to use it, and all other manufacturers fell in line.

So here we are, more than 140 years later, using a keyboard layout designed to fix a problem that no longer exists. How many people today use a typewriter? How many have even seen one? We have an entire generation growing up today with mobile devices, and even these use the QWERTY layout!

I’m not the world’s fastest typist, but I think I’m decent.  I’m also really accustomed to QWERTY keyboards. Waaaaah! I don’t wanna re-learn how to type!  ::Stomps foot petulantly::

So why do we persist with the QWERTY layout? Because everyone has somehow learned to use it, and most of us have become so good at it that we type without even having to look at the individual keys any more. To get used to a different layout would almost be like learning a different language.

I’m part of that everyone. I don’t especially want to change to a different type of keyboard, but if there’s a significant benefit to be gained, either to me (something like “RING, RING: You have a collect call from Apple’s CEO offering you $25 million to test out their new ABCD keyboard. Will you accept the charges?”) or society at large, I would try it out.  Plus, it’s not as if one day every keyboard in the world would vanish, to be replaced by some newfangled keyboard.  I’m sure the current ones would slowly fade out.