By David Buck
Clickety Clack
It's that unmistakable sound you hear when your fingers fly across a mechanical keyboard. It's part of the reason I bought one. That bit of onomatopoeia (thanks, Todd Rundgren) is also something you may or may not miss from the glory days of typewriters. I used the typewriter for a lot of things as a kid: bad poems, homework, letters. Detective and superhero stories. Just making up silly, random words and writing fake definitions of them. I also liked the sound the type slug and keys made.
Personal computers were definitely a thing when I was a kid. I used a green IBM Selectric and a ColecoVision ADAM before ever getting an MS-DOS/Windows 3.11 PC (and a lovely dot matrix printer to go with it) around 1993. We were poor, so a typewriter was our go-to for a few years. So it goes.
The typewriter itself was invented in the 1800s, but the first one to feature a QWERTY keyboard layout. The history of the typewriter is pretty much what you'd expect: a bunch of different people tinkering with the design until it evolved into the more modern forms that were used by authors, secretaries, office workers, etc. for decades until technology changed and typewriters were largely replaced by word processors and personal computers.
In 2019, the Voice of America reported that typewriters were becoming popular again, especially among younger folks. As people flocked back to the analog device, the only typewriter repair shops in the country saw increased demand. One of them had to move to a new office space just to keep up. Five years later, in 2024, PBS claimed typewriters were “having a renaissance.” But what about now in 2026? Is the trend holding? Did it even exist at all?
I recently read a story in The New York Times about a guy named Paul Lundy who quit his facilities management job for a career repairing typewriters (I don't make a habit of reading the NYT, but here’s another story about it). He met an elderly gentleman, Bob Montgomery, who’d spent his entire life repairing and refurbishing the machines. Lundy learned from and worked with Mr. Montgomery, eventually taking over the business and continuing its traditions. Lundy still runs the place. It’s called the Bremerton Typewriter Company, and you can visit it if you feel like taking a trip to Seattle.
It was certainly an inspiring story, but something about the way the piece ended hit me pretty hard when Lundy tells the interviewer:
“The kids get it. They’re not trying to be nostalgic for something they never experienced. They’re trying to escape what they experience every day.”
I get it. Tech is useful for lots of things. It also has plenty of issues surrounding it–like surveillance, AI slop everywhere, and social media addiction. We’re not here to talk about those. Let’s just say it makes perfect sense as to why someone would actually want to use a typewriter in what is now the mid-2020s, even if it kind of sucks sometimes. I can think of a few reasons, but the simplest one is: no subscriptions and the right to repair.
Joe Van Cleave, who writes and makes videos about the typewriter revival, has some very interesting things to say about the devices. In a video from 2024, he talked about how photography changed as technology changed. Film cameras started basically disappearing as they were replaced by other tech. What really caught my ear, though, was when he talked about something most of us have probably noticed when he said:
“There’s a resurgence of interest in film photography, especially among young people who didn’t grow up with it.” There’s also a renewed interest in IMAX film, which is insane. I worked as a projectionist (with both 35mm and digital) for a long time and remember when all the old film projectors were scrapped. A few years ago, I remember reading about how some exhibitors were showing certain movies on large-format film again and were scouring junkyards for old film equipment. Some theater chains are bringing back actual IMAX film projectors, and a new Christopher Nolan film (because, of course, it has to be Christopher Nolan) was shot entirely on IMAX film. It’s wild how that stuff comes back around.
The same thing happened with typewriters, but new typewriters now are not very high quality, although you can get print wheels, ribbon cartridges, correction tape, and new old stock electric typewriters from certain companies (Van Cleave states that these use Daisy Wheels and really don’t appeal to most typewriter hobbyists/enthusiasts). Some of his criticisms extended to those new film cameras: they lack the sturdiness and design of the older models, despite being popular.
That’s pretty interesting, but I feel like it’s just as easy to find an older, more sturdy typewriter model just by looking online, at thrift stores, or even in your area. And it seems like Van Cleave isn’t very excited about the prospect of newer typewriters being manufactured. He mentions that the type that are being made (the Daisy Wheel style ones) now aren’t very popular, despite being highly functional machines. He summed it up with a great quote that I’ll put here:
“They’re not causing a typewriter revival, because the typewriter people just aren’t interested in these.”
The typewriter revival isn’t the same as large-format film or film cameras. People either want to write with an older kind of typewriter or they want to collect them as antiques. Now, I can’t speak to what other people might want, but I have many reasons why typewriters in 2025/2026 appeal to me. And I’ll tell ya right now that collecting isn’t one of them, for me anyway.
Subscriptions are Bogus BS most of the time
Being online without an ad blocker running absolutely sucks. Even when you pay for premium services (like, for instance, YouTube Premium), the expectation is not to be inundated with ads. Even with the ad blocker and/or Premium, you STILL have to deal with “sponsored content.” I just want to listen or watch something interesting without hearing someone shill a product. Is that too much to ask?
Yes, it is. My desire to start using a typewriter again came from frustration with ridiculous subscriptions. You see, I needed a printer. After looking over Craigslist for an older model that would be compatible with my laptop and coming up short cost-wise, I ended up finding one for a reasonable price online. But I got swindled. The printer turned out to be one of those HP “Instant Ink” monstrosities. When I refused to pay the $5 monthly fee, those a$$-hats at HP remotely BRICKED MY DEVICE.
And before you say, “Well, why don’t you use an Ethernet cable and buy non-HP ink cartridges?” Well, I did, but that’s not the point. The point is, I bought a friggin’ printer and feel like I should be able to use the darn thing without a subscription or maintenance fee. I’m a firm believer in OWNING WHAT I PAY FOR. I’m not the only one who feels that way (Louis Rossman and the FULU Foundation are big on owning what you buy). I would rather deal with the hassle of typing up several pages on a typewriter than deal with a stupid subscription-based printer. The need to get away from the constant bombardment of ads, subscriptions, and owning nothing is a big part of why physical media is coming back, at least according to Rolling Stone. Streaming sucks, anyway.
Entertainment, vehicle parts, “smart” air purifier filters, and printer ink. They’re ALL subscriptions anymore, or locked into situations where you can’t repair it yourself or use generic parts. I feel like corporations would make you subscribe just to breathe if they could find a way to monetize and get away with it. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is literally trying to make the act of accessing intelligence itself a subscription. So, I can certainly see the appeal of typewriters, given that everything we interact with anymore has continuing costs associated with it. Typewriters offer no begging for subs, zero data theft, and none of those wretched sponsorships I mentioned before. You can just use one without needing to find an open-source alternative, constantly update features, or get the latest version. It’s a nice idea.
Avoiding distraction and getting away from tech (screen time, social media, a 24-hour news cycle, so-called artificial intelligence)
One of the biggest draws of typewriter use, for me anyway, is to avoid the downside of modern technology. Everything is designed to keep users engaged and scrolling. Things are often sensationalized. AI has created this endless slop machine where now we can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t. Some technology and apps are addictive. People abuse them, stay on all the time, use it to think for them, or just flat out won’t do things themselves. Where’s the fun in that?
There’s a reason why screen time, social media, and LLMs have such a massive conversation around them. So, I’d say that avoiding distraction is definitely a reason why people would want to use one right now. Most “typewriter enthusiast” articles and videos online like to use this as a talking point to convince folks to use them. In early 2025, the BBC wrote about people who repair, manufacture, and use typewriters in the 21st century. One of their examples was a woman who was just trying to type something in a word-processing program but grew increasingly frustrated with the pop-ups, suggestions, hints, and all the notifications that happen when using certain programs. The funny thing is that she’ll write the drafts on the typewriter, then scan them into her computer. Another person mentioned in the article uses them to type letters instead of using a computer.
But even they admit that typewriter usage requires a lot more effort than most typing (duh). Some people feel that using a typewriter can enhance creativity. Makes sense. But I think the most obvious tech-related draw of these old machines is that they offer a way to create something genuine and avoid so-called artificial intelligence.
AI garbage, nonsense, and slop are quite literally everywhere. I can see the appeal in wanting to avoid that. No, Gemini, I don’t want you to draft an outline for my piece. Just let me randomly start writing and organize it later. No, Claude, I don’t want to brainstorm with you. I’ll talk to real people and check out some primary sources instead, thank you very much. Sorry, ChatGPT, I just can’t stand you and refuse to even look at ya. YouTube Creator, just STOP; no one wants to make SHORTS with AI or “use AI to edit.” T-Mobile: Hire back your CSRs, bro, and while you’re at it, build a more customer-friendly UI for the app you force users to go through to do anything other than pay their bill. So it goes.
Tech bros and unscrupulous companies shove this AI garbage into everything, whether we want it or not (and in my experience, it leans more toward “not”). If I’m using an old IBM Selectric to write my articles, lyrics, and stories, I don’t have to worry about the next update introducing a “friendly assistant” or breaking my user interface in favor of slop.
The Trials and Tribble-ations of Owning a Typewriter in 2026
But, man, they’re a pain in the neck sometimes. They’re not exactly portable. Repairs can be difficult. Parts might be difficult to source. Plastic fatigue can destroy some parts of the machines. Pressing down on the keys can be a bit of a process at times. And if you get a machine where the rubber has turned to sticky sludge? God help you. The machines, while often beautiful, are absolutely not convenient in any way whatsoever. Also, you’d better be into some serious lubrication if you’re going to maintain an older model.
Using them is a bit of a pain in the neck for some people. Normally, I stay the heck away from social media, but there’s a surprisingly good Reddit thread covering when and why people largely stopped using typewriters. Some of the stories are fun. Spend some time reading it. Don’t summarize it with an AI tool. Just spend some time getting to know these people and their experiences. Sarah Everett, founder of the YouTube channel Just My Typewriter and the world’s foremost expert in Barbie typewriters, also has an excellent series for curious beginners.
Maintenance can be a nightmare sometimes, or at the very least a bit inconvenient. Just like your computer keyboard, you have to keep the keys clean. Some parts might need to be lubed. You’ll have to check the ribbon and typebars regularly [editor’s note: yes, this is where the name of the magazine comes from—the typewriter piece that elevates the typeslug to the ink ribbon]. And a finicky carriage could lead to hours spent on a fix or worse: a dead typewriter.
You also have to be careful with how you use it (don’t bang on the keys!) and how you store it. Caring for a typewriter is deliberate, meticulous, and routine. You can’t just spray some air on it or wipe it down and call it a day. However, I find the at-times Sisyphean maintenance that comes along with owning an older, more beat-up machine appealing. It reminds me of restoring vintage guitars, which is something I do in my spare time but refuse to monetize. Typically, I’ll acquire a beat-up instrument, spend some time fixing and restoring it, make it playable, and give it to someone who wants to learn to play. I could see myself doing the same thing with older typewriter models, honestly. But what works for me will absolutely turn other people off to the idea of using such things when more convenient tech might be available.
Compared to owning and regularly using other retro tech, it’s a bit more challenging (I think I might’ve just earned a trophy for understatement of the year). Take the original Nintendo Entertainment System or the Super NES. You can hook up your NES to basically any TV or monitor with RCA inputs, and it’ll still work, assuming nothing is wrong with it internally. It might not look great, but you can be stomping goombas or falling into pits in a few seconds. No problem. They require very little maintenance. Just clean the contacts with alcohol and Q-tips (don’t blow into them) once in a while, and dust the vents. If it starts yellowing, you can clean it or repaint it. Controllers can be fixed easily if you know what you’re doing. You can replace a 72-pin connector and have your games running like new. Flash carts and an active homebrew scene make owning an NES just as useful and fun today as it was back in the 90s.
The same can be said of using my early 90s PC. If I want to set up my old MS-DOS/Windows 3.11 system today, I can do that. Sure, my discs all rotted in storage over the years, but I still have everything I need to set it up and play around with Windows for Workgroups, SimCity, Carmen Sandiego, or Jill of the Jungle.
One of the best electric guitars I ever owned and restored was a Harmony guitar, manufactured in the 1960s, but sourcing parts and fixing it in the mid-2010s was not fun, cheap, or easy (I should note that once I found those parts, I had a blast restoring the instrument).
Unfortunately, some typewriter parts are getting harder and harder to find, should I lose one of them. The same thing can happen with a typewriter. Parts might be tough to find or need to be sourced from another machine. There are plenty of resources, though, that can help you. The Typewriter Database (TWDB) is a good place to start for machine info and online manuals.
Typewriters can still be repaired if you find the right shop/tools/expertise/parts, too. And you can sleep comfortably knowing that fixing the damn thing won’t break any laws or brick the machine.
The nostalgia factor is strong, too
Typewriter use in the 21st century might seem weird to some people, but there’s definitely something to be said about nostalgia here. Even if the people using them aren’t nostalgic for the time they used them, they might be nostalgic for the time period they represent. Just last month, one of my Gen Z colleagues was excitedly telling me all about the Walkman she just got and showing me her cassette collection. “Wow,” I said, “I haven’t thought about one of those since I used to listen to my dub of the Ghostbusters 2 soundtrack and my Dr. Demento tapes.” She had no idea what I was talking about (I’m getting used to that).
I told her about how I had graduated from a Walkman to a Sony Discman and turned into a massive Zappa fan. Seriously, I carried anywhere from four to six FZ CDs with me nearly everywhere I went during late high school and college. After that, I got this bitchin’ Philips MP3 player that lasted me a long time. I miss that thing and would pick one up in a second if I could find one. But I don’t know anyone who misses the frustration of tuning rabbit ears to get the reception JUST RIGHT on your TV, and I can’t say I know many folks in my cohort who miss using typewriters for daily writing.
It was a fun and interesting conversation, but I just could not understand why someone would WANT to go back to cassettes when CDs are readily available. I think the same idea applies to typewriters here. The old tech is cool and interesting to them. Economic instability and world events might have something to do with it, too. There’s a general idea that an overdependence on technology is driving people apart, with Gen Z adults feeling it the most.
So, should you get one?
I don’t know. Maybe? I did. Originally, I did not plan to buy one of the Daisy Wheel ones Van Cleave talked about, even though they probably would’ve worked a bit better to disconnect from the digital world. What ended up happening was a bit different. I ended up first getting an antique typewriter for free and then finding myself back at the drawing board when it proved to be more of a “fixer-upper” than I wanted it to be. Let me explain.
Tracking down a working older typewriter in 2025 was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. It happened pretty darn fast. And it was the EXACT model, color, and design that I owned as a kid. My wife would say something about it being a sign or “it happened for a reason.” She believes in that sort of thing, and I have to admit it's grown on me over the past 20 years. Unfortunately, the deal fell through, and I ended up not getting it. Due to a combination of severe weather (the typewriter was located across town) and an illness (bronchitis), I was unable to meet the typewriter’s owner. So he canceled the sale. Every other model I found was far too expensive for my meager budget. Eventually, I turned to my own neighborhood, some friends, and a few former co-workers for help. They all said the same thing: “I don’t know anyone who has one, but I’ll keep an eye out.” A few weeks passed. One of my neighbors, a kind elderly man who seems to know everyone, found one for me. Apparently, someone he knew had acquired a compact Smith Corona. From where, I don’t know, but I suspect it had something to do with either picking up a discarded one from a curb, clearing out an old storage unit, or perhaps, a bit of dumpster diving. It’s a mystery to me.
I know very little about it, and it definitely needs some work, but I think it’ll be a project worth working on. We’ll call it a big fixer-upper. Ok, that’s an understatement. The keys are rusty, and most of them stick. It’s missing a few pieces. But it’s cool because it’s fully mechanical, and the parts all move just fine. Some quick research tells me it’s likely from the 1950s, and it may or may not be part of the Skyriter brand. I wouldn’t know; the insignia is missing, but there’s clearly a place where it would have been located on the unit when it was new.
I think I can fix it, especially if I approach it with the same research style and enthusiasm that I do with my vintage guitar restorations. The process has already begun; I looked up some restoration manuals and tips online (I found one that was legit and one that was slop city; I’m considering limiting my search to websites dated before 11/30/2022). YouTube has plenty of non-slop videos on the subject. Plus, I found an owner’s manual online already. It’s helped with some of the work I’ve performed so far on the typewriter, which mostly involves scraping rust off the keys and lots of lubrication. I'm looking into sourcing some secondhand parts and replacing the ribbon.
Typewriter shops are few and far between, so repairs can be a challenge. So far, I’ve tried cleaning it up a bit and lubricating some parts. It’s helped, but we have a long way to go. It’ll need a new ribbon for sure (that thing is more gnarled than a badly twisted tree). I don’t know what it will take to get this thing working, but I’m looking forward to finding out. I sought a working typewriter, found one, but ended up going home empty-handed. Then, fortune blessed me with a Smith Corona (that needs work, but hey, that’s just splitting hairs). It’s crazy how that worked out in the end.
After playing around with it for a bit, inspecting it for damage, and playing with the type slugs, I tried loading some paper into the unit. It makes marks on the paper...and that's it. We have a long way to go before this unit is ready to rock and roll again (if it ever will be), but it'll be a lot of fun working on it and finding out.
It seems like a long journey and extensive effort to repair and use an old machine like this. So, you might be asking yourself, why do it at all? The answer is simple. As a kid, I loved writing little stories and poems. They weren't great stories (lots of detective stuff involving aliens and nonsense poetry). Naturally, I grew up to become a songwriter. We didn't have a “real” computer until we got one for work. That MS-DOS/Windows 3.11 machine stayed in his room, and we were only allowed to play games or mess around with the Paintbrush program.
Over time, I'd learn how to do many things on Windows and Linux machines. I even studied for A+ certification at one point. Much later, I spent a large part of my writing career writing and editing things with Microsoft Word and Google Docs. Docs was the main tool at the agency where I worked. In college, professors required .doc files or PDFs. When my agency job was outsourced to an LLM in 2024, I felt like it was only a matter of time before AI would permeate everything. I think the worst part of that isn’t the ubiquity, but the ease with which many people have just accepted it and made it part of their lives. Either that, or the tech companies are cramming it into every damned thing. It's hollow. Annoying. Disheartening. Way too distracting. It hurts my brain.
The creative, naive kid who loved writing those stories is still living in my brain somewhere. That's why it's worth the effort of restoring this machine and writing a new story with it. I'm doing it for the part of me that I wrongly believed died decades ago. I'm doing it for peace of mind. I'm doing it to get away from AI, the onslaught of awful news, and our dystopian reality. But, mostly, I'm just doing it because it seems like it might be kind of fun.
There's always been that part of me that wants to write my drafts on a typewriter instead of a word processor, long before AI and the modern internet came around. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the Smith Corona working or find a reasonably priced Selectric in the wild. I have a few leads, so wish me luck. I’m surprisingly committed to once again using a typewriter for my creative work in 2026, in the face of how weird, awful, and dystopian the world has become.
I’m looking forward to taking the journey, either way, wherever it may take me.
Clickety Clack
Huh. There's that sound again. Did you know Tom Hanks wrote a book featuring typewriters? And it's NOT a history or non-fiction book. Everyone's favorite Bosom Buddy is a typewriter collector who wrote a series of short fiction stories that use them in the plot. I read a few. They're pretty good.
So, get yourself a typewriter. Sit down and write a poem, a letter, a drabble, or just anything at all. And do it for yourself. There’s no need to sell, monetize, or profit from your creativity. Just make it and share it with the world (or your closest friends or just yourself), expecting nothing in return. The creative world doesn't always have to be monetized. Hobbies can be hobbies.
Oh, and expect some extra effort in using and maintaining your new device because owning and actively using a typewriter is a pain in the a$$. But it's definitely worth it. And hey, if you want to go really low-tech, you can always get a Hansen Writing Ball.
David Buck is a former radio and TV guy whose work has appeared on Tedium, How To Geek, SyFy Wire, Nerdvana Media, and Vice. He’s a writer, researcher, podcaster, and musician who writes about the absurdity of our modern world and other offbeat topics. He loves weird music, the old web, retro video games and tech, and researching strange, yet interesting things. Currently working on a variety of music, web, and writing projects. Visit him on the web at https://djbuckfreelance.neocities.org/