The Lost Art of Shorthand

          In the grand scheme of things, a couple of centuries isn’t all that long, making it all the more impressive how far human innovation and technology have come in just the last 20 years, let alone the past century. As relatively new inventions like Google and Wi-Fi become staples of everyday life, past technologies fade into obscurity. One such disappearing innovation is the notoriously difficult-to-learn practice called shorthand.  

        Shorthand, dating back to ancient Greece, is a system that speeds up writing pace by using phonetic alphabets and ignoring traditional spellings. The two main modern styles were invented separately in the late 1800s. The first style, the Pitman Shorthand named after its inventor Sir Issac Pitman, uses thin and thick strokes to symbolize the weight of sounds. For example, ‘p’ would have a thin mark, whereas ‘b’ would have a thick one as it is more pronounced in speech. The other system is that of Robert Gregg, creatively named the Gregg Shorthand. This style also uses the weight of a letter’s sound when determining how to notate it, but rather than representing letters with the width of lines,  the Gregg Shorthand uses its length.

        In the past, both methods were invaluable for the speed with which they allowed people to record conversations: phonetic strokes could be combined to form words, meaning each letter did not need to be written out separately. For example, before digital recording devices or typewriters were invented, stenographers recording court proceedings needed a way to write dialogue down word for word at the same speed as the naturally quick nature of a conversation, while ensuring it was still legible by the end of the trial. However, as technology evolved throughout the 19th century, the necessity of a quick writing method decreased, and people stopped learning the intricate scripts. Now, shorthand is no longer taught in school and is in danger of completely fading out, with less than 1% of the global population using it. 

        Although the art of shorthand may be slowly slipping away, human nature has proven that our norms shift as technology develops. Indeed, shorthand’s ability to abbreviate phrases through simplified notation still persists today, albeit in a dissimilar form. In truth, perhaps it is more accurate to say that shorthand is not disappearing, but rather evolving: just as how we have traded our notebooks for keyboards and our textbooks for laptops, we have also transitioned from using shorthand strokes to acronyms to simplify our everyday thoughts. The rise of social media and the introduction of text messages in the early 21st century has demonstrated an adaptation of the essence of shorthand, with constantly evolving texting acronyms used to simplify day-to-day communication. Similar adaptations can also be seen throughout other fields of the arts and sciences throughout history. For example, with the rise and fall of artistic movements, trends can shift just as quickly as societal priorities can change and situational necessities can adapt. As technological advancements continue to shift the way we operate in our daily lives, the preservation and passing down of ideas allow us to further develop as a society, becoming a function of the very nature of human tenacity.