I've sat in front of a typewriter for the better part of my life. Since Junior High School (is it still called that?) I doubt that I've turned in more than two papers that were hand written.
Frankly, I loved typing and though I certainly can't complain about the wonders of word processing, I have fond memories of all of the typewriters I've gone through in the past thirty-plus years.
Maybe when you write something by hand, it really doesn't mean much to you, but (for me at least) when I was able to type I wanted what I typed to look as professional as possible, and at the time that meant JUSTIFIED MARGINS. Those margins were a sign of real quality - of professionalism - and I wanted to be able to have them.
And of course, when I sat down to play around with my first word processor (MacWrite 1.5) there they were, no farther away from me than the click of a mouse. Which was also the end of my flirtation with justified margins. If they were so easy to get, then there really wasn't much point in getting them. They no longer impressed anyone. Sadly I had to admit that it was more important to concentrate on the content rather than on the container. I learned my lesson.
Impressive graphics of all shapes and sizes are instantly available for downloading from numerous sites at the click of a mouse. But I promise that any HTML pages that I have any responsibility for will use them only where actually called for.
That's a drawing of my father's old Underwood typewriter. It was Dad's first and he kept using it even when he'd mastered resting his fingers enough above the keyboard of an electric typewriter so that the machine didn't jump ahead of him while he was thinking. I now own that typewriter, though I don't use it (though come to think of it, when the electricity goes out it's incredibly user friendly). Still, it's a beautiful machine, and when I think of how prolific Dad was (especially in comparison to myself) I'm forced to admit that it's not the technology that determines how productive we are, nor the quality of what we produce.