Do these things correlate that much tho? Not to toot my own horn, but I am fairly tech-proficient and have terrible typing skills. My technique is somewhere in between hunt-and-peck and touch-typing, despite regular typing lessons in elementary school. I imagine a lot of other people are like this, and vice-versa as well.

Are computer labs still a thing in schools?

How would you learn keyboard typing, if one always types on the phone?! (I am not even Z and have to look on the keyboard)

My sister is gen x and I’m a millennial, she’s asks me the most batshit insane questions like, how do I turn off my iPhone? What? You’ve had it 4 years!

Gen X here. I've got an average 123 WPM on typeracer, which puts me in the 99,8th percentile.

I started looking at the screen instead of the keyboard early on. There were touch typing classes as an option around 8th grade, I think, but it was literally just having a map of which fingers go where and typing text focusing on using the right fingers. I didn't take one, but I think I'm using the right fingers for 80% of the keys. I'm moving my hands back and forth a bit to let my dominant fingers do the work.

I started playing MUDs in 1997 at age 13, and building up that muscle memory for every combination of two- or three letter commands probably did more than I'd care to admit. I still miss the responsiveness of a proper DOS prompt, or Linux tty.

We’re not even teaching them cursive anymore and they still can’t type? What are they doing in schools?

I had to teach some zoomers how to send an email, especially about using bcc, pretty funny I have to say

that's because they're not using computers or doing work

I was a terrible typer as a kid, two finger hunt and pecker. Got a job that necessitated fast typing while listening or reading. I learned how to touch type, or fake it enough, really quick. Humans are adaptable, that’s why we are everywhere, they just need the motivation to learn the skill.

I feel like this calls for the importance of not just inundation but actual education for kids.

We basically let a whole generation have the relationship with the most common and arguably valuable be defined by advertising companies.

The article is kind of all over the place mixing high-school graduates and fourth-graders? I can see how you're sluggish at typing in fourth grade... The numbers for a 17 year old would be interesting... But yeah, 13 words per minute isn't impressive. And most young people I know use phones and tablets, not computers. So naturally a good amount of them isn't good around these things.

I learned to touch type quickly mostly out of necessity to communicate quickly in online games before voice chat was a thing.