Writing, reading, communication and its tools.

In my life, I have been using different methods to write:

–          Crayons and pencils during my childhood

–          A quill pen with purple ink at primary school

–          A fountain pen Waterman during my secondary school

I know that first ball-point pens arrived in France in the 50’s but it was forbidden to use it at school or in highschool.

Then, during many years, I’ve been using fountain pen and ball-point pen, like everybody. Later, felt-tip pen came up.

But the real change happened for me in the 80’s when, at a friend’s, I’ve seen a sort of plastic box with a screen. My friend told me “It is a Macintosh”. I had no idea of what could be possible with this amazing tool.

In a few years, this machine gave birth to astonishing tools:

–          PCs or laptops, Mac or Windows. The text processor has been quickly coupled with the Internet permitting to communicate with the whole world at lightening speed (or almost). It is a real revolution that continues and still multiplies its tools and functionalities.

Funny fact : Recently, a Parisian pupil showed me a fountain pen. She told me that her teacher gave one of it to each pupil in her class and that she was really glad to have such a “new thing”. She explained to me that this pen needed to be filled with ink cartridges. She was really convinced that I had never seen a such thing. She is collecting fountain pens since this moment and looking for different models with a preference for old ones. Meanwhile, I am trying to write on my computer every day avoiding to type on it like I used to do on a typewriter. I send emails to my family in the whole world and people tell me : “Why are you writing? You should use Skype, it is useful! Why don’t you have an ebook reader since you enjoy reading?” I don’t want an ebook reader, I prefer books, paper books.

Here we are, I am up-to-date on some techniques and classic for others because I am convinced that future generations will need these classic techniques.