This is such an interesting phenomenon. I never really thought about it, but i suppose that if you're job didn't require it, when would you really have a need to write something that included paragraphs. But these days, with all the communication that takes place via email, facebook, twitter, blogs, etc., people are writing way more than ever.

An interesting thing i've experienced is that my handwriting has suffered tremendously since almost all my writing is now done via keyboard.

Just go back to school. With all the notes you have to take, all the writing, you'll be back up to snuff in no time!

I had a class a year or so ago that as soon as the teacher put something up on the overhead, you were writing like mad for a good half hour at least, trying to get it all down. As fast as you could. Ouch.

I recall this very thought crossing my mind several years back. What makes it even more amazing is that many men doing the writing do it with only one hand.

That wouldn't take account into all the dear diary things I wrote, but then I had plenty to write about.
I wrote stories all the time too (may be the reason both my girls went into journalism)
And I had pen-pals which were like greatly anticipated emails, I suppose.

I agree with debbyski. What group of people are we talking about? Which continents? Every culture? All ages. Was there a global wide study? Nope.