A keyboard in my mind.

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I learned how to type at a very young age. It's hard for me to imagine not being able to type. But perhaps it also has its drawbacks. For better or for worse, over the years I've found that as I read I also type what I'm reading on a virtual keyboard. I can picture my fingers moving over the keys as I type out what I'm reading. Does this slow down my reading speed? Most probably it does, though as I've admitted, I'm a very fast typist. This "skill" (if that's what it is) sometimes penetrates into other aspects of my life. While listening to a lecture, for instance, I discover that instead of listening to the words being said, I'm actually typing them out.

Does this (admittedly somewhat obsessive) behavior mean that the keyboard has also become really a part of me? Certainly not in the sense of something that I can't live without. I wouldn't mind living without this skill. It doesn't really help me in any particular way, other than perhaps keeping me occupied while listening to boring lectures. It can even be somewhat irritating, and other than writing about it on an internet site with a very limited readership, it's not the sort of thing that I feel comfortable about admitting to in public. Rather than the keyboard becoming a part of me in some constructive sense it as though it's leeched onto me in a parasitic relationship.

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Go to: Now what did I mean by that?, or
Go to: From the brain to the page ... fast, or
Go to: Really a part of me.