I am not sure of this, and I write by hand, but I feel my choice of words is more subtle and immediate when I write with a writing instrument grasped in the fingers of my right hand. Something about exercising motor control over the shape of the letters makes me more thoughtful about writing them, rather than the single-faced utility of a keyboard where every stoke is a repetitious and undifferentiated exercise. When writing really matters, such as poetry, there is only one choice, and that is my Waterman.

Those of us on the autistic spectrum - who suffer from the accompanying dyspraxia that makes handwriting an ordeal - have a somewhat different perspective on the decline of the discipline.  We remember frustrating and humiliating hours wasted in penmanship classes, being required to write in cursive (even though our hand printing is far faster and infinitely more readable), the inability to complete assignments in time (for purely mechanical reasons), constant criticism over the illegibility of our pathetic scrawls, etc., etc.  Yes, there are arguably aesthetic, tactile, emotional, etc. aspects to handwriting that some may sincerely cherish, and which will inevitably decline along with the practice itself.  But as a useful skill in today's world, its value is minimal and shrinking.  Many consider typing a soulless activity, and feel that handwriting is the one true path to genuinely expressive writing.  My sentiment is exactly the opposite.  For me, the mechanical difficulty of handwriting makes it an impediment to composing anything longer than a sentence, and an unequivocal thought-blocker.  But on the keyboard, I am free, and the transfer of thought into text is almost magically seamless.