The QWERTY keyboard is almost everywhere. But how did it get there?
This episode of Vox’s Overrated series explores the history of the QWERTY keyboard. Contrary to popular legend, QWERTY didn’t make it big because it slowed down speedy typists. Instead, its popularity can be traced to the business interests behind the development of the typewriter industry as well as the training courses that made typing mainstream.
Even today, most of our phones have a keyboard layout invented more than a century ago. As the above video shows, that’s no accident.
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