The art of the traditional signature is becoming a thing of the past thanks to the rise of online contracts, e-signatures and PIN numbers.
Surveys show that just a fifth of young adults aged 18 to 24 now have a personal signature, and a similar share of adults use their signature so infrequently, they can’t produce the same one consistently.
And that matches what teachers are seeing.
Dr Lori Koerner, the assistant superintendent for the Riverhead Central School District in New York, told DailyMail.com: ‘I have encountered too many secondary students and employment candidates who cannot sign documents relative to their onboarding process.’
Although no longer having a signature could be comparable to losing your individuality, experts told DailyMail.com there’s a scarier reality – it could make them more prone to identity theft.
Students aren’t being taught cursive in school anymore, causing the individual signature to die off
‘Though technology has its benefits, children need to be able to read cursive in the event a document is presented to them along their journey,’ Dr Koerner said.
‘They most certainly, at the very least, need to know how to sign their name.’
Signatures were once a symbol of a person’s identity that used swooping lines to distinguish each individual from the next.
It was one of the first things children were taught in school as they practiced writing their names each day in cursive in preparation for needing to sign important documents later in life.
However, the US government removed the skill from the core curriculum in 2010 due to claims it was time consuming and would not be useful in the age of technology which meant schools could instead focus on typing classes.
When dropping cursive from common core, lawmakers argued that cursive was time-consuming and wouldn’t be as useful as other skills like typing, that students would need at they moved on to junior and high school,’ a then-spokesperson for Georgia Department of Education told ABC News at the time.
In today’s world, a signature can be any mark on paper that indicates the parties accept the terms of an agreement, including a picture, series of squiggles, a traditional ‘X,’ printed name or a signature created by a third-party software.
Natalie Maniscalco, the co-founder of Wonder Girls USA, told DailyMail.com: ‘Oftentimes, everything is digitalized and we are often asked for a signature on an iPad, which clearly diminishes any type of original signature because it never comes out the way it would look with paper and pen.’
Digital signatures became widespread in the early 2000s after then-President Bill Clinton signed the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (ESIGN) Act into law.
The act made e-signatures legally binding in the US, giving them the same status as paper contracts like rent agreements, credit card receipts and mortgage contracts.
Technology replaced needing to use a proper signature, instead allowing you to add a squiggle on a digitized device in its place
A reel posted on a teacher’s Facebook forum discussed the issue, saying young people need to be able to sign their name in cursive or risk more sinister repercussions.
‘I feel like the kids get disconnected. We can’t say they don’t need to use any technology, because it’s the time period we live in. But you’re all going to teach them to work computers – can we teach them cursive?’ one person said in the reel.
‘Because they print their name and someone could steal their identity. I mean, they have no signature; nothing unique to them.’
This is because the less complex the handwriting is, the easier it is for a criminal to forge your signature and steal money from your bank account and obtain credit cards, loans and state benefits.
It can also allow criminals to create fake contracts and agreements in your name, take over existing accounts and obtain legal documents like passports and driver’s licenses.
Maniscalco questioned whether younger generation’s inability to sign their signature will impact their lives and careers, and explained ‘It’s hard to say at this point.
‘But it’s important for [young people] to create [a signature] that is authentic to them and for them to understand what the signature could be used for, like any other life skill kids need to be taught.’
