Writing Technologies + 16th Century Book Trade

Summary:

• Writing technologies have developed based on making text input more efficient.
• Improvements have largely been based on profit
• The development of the keyboard was an extended process culminating in the QWERTY design we use today
• Price is a dominant factor in determining the popularity and extent of use of new writing technologies.
• Religion remained influential in the production of texts and the technologies used to produce them, since the Church regulated what was printed.
• Printing in the vernacular became more common, but Latin was still predominant. Publishers experimented with the size and aesthetics of books to make them more cost-effective.

Comment:

I thought it was funny that the QWERTY keyboard was advertised as "scientifically" arranged when it actually was not, yet it still became extremely popular and is still used today.

Question:

As we change writing technologies, does this effect what we are writing? Does efficiency and ease of use cause us to write less pertinent information, simply because it's less tedious?