Why typewriters are making a comeback

It's unmistakable. The sound of keys on metal. The click-clack of a bygone era. But typewriters are making a comeback. Here at Gramercy Typewriter in New York City, the old machines are finding a new audience. People want to have a typewriter again. The 94-year-old family business is now in the hands of Jay Schweitzer, who sells typewriters by day and repairs them alongside his father by night. Although there's been so many changes in the world, for us, there hasn't been many changes at all. We're still overhauling and reconditioning machines the way it was done so many decades ago. Store manager Nick Campano was once a customer. Hello, Gramercy. I met Jay when I was 15. I had a typewriter that needed to be fixed. I just kind of fell in love with the variation of all the machines, the history of them. The modern typewriter was created in the 1800s. The tool of Hemingway, a staple of film noir like Sunset Boulevard and In a Lonely Place, and the workhorse of the American office. In the 1980s, typewriters were replaced by computers. But now? If anything, demand has increased over the years. A lot of working people are tired of staring at that screen all day, and they find it rather refreshing to be in front of the typewriter and really focus and concentrate. And work without pop-up ads or keystroke tracking or hacks. Nostalgic tech is having a moment. Google reports portable cassette players and iPods are trending, and people are missing the click-clack. Searches soaring for thocky and creamy-sounding keyboards. Welcome to Keep Talk. Get a creamy keyboard. Shana Roark makes a living with her Olivetti Lettera 32 from the 1960s. What are you thinking for your subject? Writing custom poetry and sharing it on social media. A vintage tool meeting modern technology, almost poetry for a poet. I love like the resolute nature of it. So every decision is final and it's so in the moment and spontaneous. No distractions. It's really just you and your thoughts and the paper. And I love kind of transporting people back in time when they see it. Ted Bloomberg wrote a book on his typewriter. It's completely modern. The only thing it won't do is give you the emojis, which I try to avoid. But I think it encourages thoughtfulness and care. And I just, I mean, I love them. Gramercy Typewriter attracts people young and old, poets and typewriter enthusiasts, and tourists from around the globe. And me. As a kid, I'd type stories and poems on my grandfather's 1928 Royal Portable. It's how I learned to be a writer. So there it is. When I brought it to Gramercy Typewriter a couple of years ago for a cleaning, we made a discovery. Bond, Romans, Monroe, Iowa. Yeah. And that was etched in to the back panel here, never to be able to be removed. I know. And here we are so many decades later, rediscovering that. In our high tech, fast paced world, there's something special about the typewriter, about going off the grid, slowing down, grounding ourselves in the rhythm of the keys, using an old tool to write something new. We thank you for watching. And remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.