at a lot faster than 52 wpm.

And I wonder if the typing speed on mobiles is including one and two letter "words" as if they were real words, like all the ones I'mve been typing here.

The last few times I took a typing test it simply took all the characters I'd typed, and divided by 5, as an average word length.

I'd like to know exactly how they reached that number. The article does not make it clear.

I do know that I hate getting into a text conversation because I can't type properly on the stupid screen. I want a real keyboard.

It works pretty well.

I have four levels of traveling computers. The worst is traveling with an expensive laptop. I hate that because I frequently lose or break things or leave them in a place where they will be stolen. Babysitting an expensive laptop is no fun for me.

Next is my Chromebook. It's well used and it was cheap. The keyboard is okay.

Next is my tablet and my fold-up keyboard; it fits most anywhere.

Then there's my "smart" flip phone, which has actual buttons.

My mom made me and all of my siblings take typing in seventh grade. This was before computers. Touch typing skills served me well in college and in various jobs.

When my own kids were in seventh grade touch-typing was was part of the required "intro to computers" course where they unlearned all the bad habits they'd developed plunking around on our home computer. For most kids touch typing was the most difficult part of the class. My kids were soon typing better than me.

My wife and I didn't buy our kids cell phones until high school. Our kids claimed they were very deprived. "All" their friends had cell phones, which wasn't yet true. Now it would be.

My wife and I bought our kids good laptops for college. One hated taking notes by hand and also hated lugging a laptop around, so ended up using a tablet with a fold-up keyboard for taking notes, writing term papers, and everything else.

That impressed me. Before that I'd seen tablets as sort of useless things.

As you've pointed out I could purchase a fold-up keyboard but instead I'd probably acquire a smaller laptop than the one I'm currently using.

It does seem as if most schools do not properly teach touch-typing, which they call keyboarding. I actually taught myself to touch type from a book, "Touch Typing Self Taught" when I was in 7th grade and had purchased a second hand typewriter. Manual, portable. This was 1961. In that era, at the public schools I attended, touch typing was not taught to all. You had to take an actual typing course and they weren't available until high school, and the college bound students never enrolled in typing classes in my era.

still use one finger to peck out a message. I would much rather email from a PC w/ a keyboard.

I really hate texting and by now, most people I know are aware of that so I don't get a lot of text messages. Because when I do, it takes me a long time to get back to people. I think it's useful for logistical things, but I don't like having text conversations.

If I have a more than three text exchange with someone I'll text, "Let's chat" because we probably have enough to actual talk about that a real conversation makes more sense.

I have my doubts any phone screen txtist (?) will approach that top end

Of course a skilled typist on a good keyboard (Dvorak, ideally) is going to be faster...but I do type almost as fast on my phone as on my laptop. It's EASIER on a keyboard, but it's like...a motorcycle vs. a car for me.