They might be the tech generation, but according to new research millennials appreciate handwriting more than any other age group.
A survey of 2,000 American adults sought to uncover our relationship with handwritten notes, handwriting, and email in the digital age.
The results showed that the art of handwriting is still more appreciated, if not widely practiced, especially by our younger generations.
According to the results of the survey, 81 percent of Americans consider a handwritten note to feel more meaningful than email or text, with millennials, surprisingly, leading the pack.
Nearly nine in ten (87 percent) millennials value handwritten notes more than alternative means of communication.
Millennials also tend to have a lot more confidence in their handwriting, with 33 percent reporting they have “very good” handwriting, compared to just 17 percent of those 55 or older.
However, the new study, conducted by handwritten note service Bond, also definitely points to a decline in people writing by hand, in lieu of more convenient technology.
42 percent of Americans receive three or less handwritten notes per year.
33 percent of Americans haven’t received a handwritten note in over a year, with 15 percent saying it’s actually been longer than five years since they got one.
Three in four Americans (75 percent) said they haven’t written a note to someone by hand in at least a month, and 15 percent haven’t written a note in over five years. Three percent report they have, in fact, never written something to somebody by hand.
“While sending and receiving handwritten notes used to be a commonplace practice before the internet, it’s much rarer now,” said Julie Noyce, General Manager of Bond. “Now that handwriting and physical forms of communication are more of a novelty, millennials are excited about them and about sending handwritten notes in general.”
While sending an email or text message may be a lot more convenient than writing a note by hand, it may sacrifice a lot more than you think, as far as perception goes.
60 percent of Americans said they’d indeed like to receive more handwritten notes than they currently do.
61 percent reported that receiving a handwritten note from a company would make them view that company more favorably, with 63 percent saying it would even make them more likely to read it.
And millennials proved to be the most sentimental generation, with 50 percent saying they “always” keep and save personal handwritten notes, which was over double the amount compared to people aged 55 or older (25 percent).
So why have people stopped sending handwritten notes? Convenience is the biggest reason, with only one in five Americans admitting they still prefer to write notes by hand.
63 percent of those who don’t prefer to write by hand say a keyboard or phone is more convenient.
32 percent say it’s too time consuming to write by hand, and 16 percent say it actually hurts their hand.
Quality of handwriting is also a key factor, as 23 percent of those who don’t prefer writing by hand reported that they don’t send notes by hand because they don’t like their handwriting.
“If it wasn’t for the relative lack of convenience and peoples’ insecurities around their handwriting, more people would send handwritten notes to others because it’s simply a more thoughtful way to communicate,” said Noyce. “That’s why we’ve done our very best at Bond to make the art of crafting and sending beautiful handwritten notes as easy as sending an email. It doesn’t have to be a trade-off; new technology can actually help bring back old habits that make our lives better.”
