Bragging rights
As much I love antiques I admit this is progress. When I was a teenager I learnt to type starting on old machines only about 10-15 years newer than this in a loud room like a 1940s-1950s typing pool. Mechanically it was so hard that, even though I could remember the keyboard, at one point I was failing the course! Now of course with computers it’s easy and fun. (And newsrooms are blessedly quiet.) And of course as a YF ageing into curmudgeonhood I think it would be character-building for everybody to learn this way.

Photo from The Fedora Lounge.