Isn't it strange that cursive handwriting lasted for hundreds of years but then sometime in the Baby Boomer Generation everyone stopped writing in cursive almost universally and switched to print? We usually blame the computer for the death of cursive and good handwriting, but this switch predated computers. So what caused this? Why did people write one way for so many generations and then suddenly abandon it within a relatively short period of time?

Spoiler: because of the ballpoint pen.

^{Photo from Wikipedia}

The ballpoint pen was introduced in the 1930s and started to become affordable and therefore common after the Second World War. At the time the common writing instrument was the fountain pen, itself a fairly new device which had replaced dip pens only fifty years or so before (the first fountain pen was invented in 1884, but it took a while to gain popularity over the basic dip pen). The ballpoint offered three big advantages. 1) It was cheaper to produce and therefore the pen cost much less than a fountain pen. 2) It used an oil based ink that did not flow at all unless forced to do so by the rollerball at the end of the ballpoint, therefore virtually eliminating the possibility of a leak, and 3) With a ballpoint when the ink ran out you had to buy a replacement ink cartridge instead of refilling it yourself. That last reason could debatably be a taken as an advantage of fountain pens, but in terms of convenience it is undoubtably easier, quicker, and less messy to just swap in a replacement ink cartridge, instead of opening a bottle of ink and refilling the pen manually. This last was a very important consideration when thinking about kids at school.

These factors led to ballpoints quickly replacing fountain pens. First in schools, but then nearly everywhere else as well. From what I have read and been told, fountain pens had entirely disappeared from almost all schools in the US by the 1970s. There is no hard data on this, as it was very much case by case, but it seems to generally have been true that they were almost entirely gone by the 70s. Some countries like Germany still make kids use fountain pens in school, but I think most countries have followed the general trend that America did.

Coincidentally the 1970s is when print started to become common for handwriting. Interesting timing, eh? Cursive was still common enough, but the percentage of people writing in print only or in a combination of print and cursive kept increasing. The trend sped up to the point where by the 1980s many schools no longer required essays to be written in cursive. Some schools held out longer. I remember my high school in Indiana still required all papers to be written in cursive as late as 1996, but then the next year (after I graduated) they changed the rule to allow students to print instead of write in cursive. Only a few years later they would switch to letting students type the essays on computer instead. Print handwriting became more the rule than the exception and these days it is overwhelming the more common form of handwriting.

Why?

A fountain pen is basically a controlled leak using a water-based ink. As a result, writing with a fountain pen requires no downward pressure to get the ink to come out, allowing one to simply guide the pen. This means that it is easier to keep the nib on the paper and so it encourages connecting letters, writing in cursive. This isn't necessarily because of the weight of the pen. It was the same two centuries prior when quill pens were still common. Simply having an ink that flows easily encourages us to keep the nib on the paper as much as possible just because it is easier.

With a ballpoint, however, by design you have to push down to get it to write. Sometimes the downward pressure required can be a lot! This downward pressure requirement results in two things. First it encourages people to hold the pen much more upright, almost perpendicular to the paper which makes it harder to write smoothly. Second, it makes our hand and arm muscles get tired quickly, forcing us to pause every now and again in our writing. Although cursive is still possible, keeping that constant downward pressure for an entire word and sentence is slightly more uncomfortable than only applying that pressure for a letter at a time. This is exactly why most of the Western world started to switch from cursive to print after the ballpoint was introduced and why these days cursive is practically dead.

I took two shots to illustrate the common hand positions between the two. Sorry I didn't realize I had portrait mode on when I took them, but you can still see the positions. I tried to hold them naturally, but I may have exaggerated the ballpoint grip. The point remains, however, that we tend to hold ballpoints more upright in order to better apply the downward pressure that is required to make them work whereas we tend to let fountain pens rest on the skin between the thumb and first finger because we are simply guiding them without applying any pressure.

Computers certainly didn't help preserve good handwriting, but they weren't the cause of it's downfall—that falls entirely on the ballpoint.

Now let's be clear, ballpoints have improved over the years. There are a number of recent evolutions. Rollerballs with gel ink might be the most popular of them. The rollerball tip is almost identical to the ballpoint tip, but gel ink flows much better than ballpoint ink, making writing with them a smoother experience. There are some downsides. Because gel ink flows better than ballpoint ink, it runs out much faster. Also it can smear, as the ink usually doesn't dry as quickly as ballpoint ink. Except for these points, gel pens are superior in almost every way to ballpoints. I have no data on their popularity, but considering most stores offer more gel pens than ballpoints, I think we can safely assume they are more popular. But they still don't match fountain pens for ease of use.

Fountain pens have become more popular these last few years, with all the pen makers reporting increased sales, and most new fountain pen users find themselves naturally returning to cursive. It's an interesting trend.

In the end, while the ballpoint pen revolutionized writing in its own way—making it more accessible and less messy—it also changed the very fabric of how we write, pushing cursive to the brink of extinction. Yet, as more people rediscover the fountain pen, we find ourselves yearning for that lost art of elegant handwriting. The tactile sensation of a fountain pen gliding across paper, encouraging the use of cursive, cannot be replicated by a ballpoint or even a gel pen.

That said, I don't think cursive will make any big comeback to its pre-1970s level. Computers may not have caused the decline of cursive handwriting, but they've created a world where handwriting itself is less essential. Will cursive ever regain its past prominence? Probably not. But does it have a role in our future? Absolutely.

^{Image by Andrys Stienstra from Pixabay}

Anyway, I don't write with fountain pens because of a misguided quest to restore the ubiquity of cursive handwriting, I just do so because it is a more pleasant writing experience. If you are tired of fighting with ballpoints, give a fountain pen a try. Don't opt for the lowest-priced options from unknown makers on Aliexpress or one of the cheap websites. Start with a reputable brand like Pilot—they make several high quality low-end models, such as the Metropolitan or Explorer models which are excellent entry points. (Feel free to ask in the comments for other recommendations). You might just find that cursive reënters your life in a small but gratifying way.

If you're already a fountain pen user, let's keep the conversation going. How long have you written with them? Share your favorite pens, inks, and writing experiences in the comments below. I wonder how many fountain pen users we have on Hive. I know Hive account@denmarkguy has posted before that he uses them. Anyone else?

Misc

Yes, I know the pen on the title graphic isn't a ballpoint. I don't actually own a ballpoint and the free stock sites didn't have any good photos, so I had to borrow a gel pens from my wife that she uses at work and make my own shot.

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.