Meaning:

    “失” means to “lose,” “写” is to “write,” and “症” refers to a certain kind of disease. This term is a newly emerging “illness” among those who use computers, tablets and smartphones all the time. Its symptom is the partial loss of the ability to write correct Chinese characters with pen and paper. Unlike usual agraphia, this term in the Chinese context often has nothing to do with brain damage and can be cured if the sufferers are willing to pick up pen and paper again.

    Example:

    A: 天气预报说明天的天气不好，我们决定暂时把比赛推迟到下周末。你写个通知贴布告栏里吧。

    Tiānqì yùbào shuō míngtiān de tiānqì bù hǎo, wǒmen juédìng zànshí bǎ bǐsài tuīchí dào xià zhōumò。Nǐ xiě gè tōngzhī tiē bùgàolán lǐ ba。

    The weather forecast says it will rain tomorrow and we’ve decided to postpone the game to next weekend. Please write a notice and put it up on the billboard.

    B: 我们的打印机坏了，打印不了。

    Wǒmen de dǎyìnjī huài le，dǎyǐn bù liǎo。

    Our printer is broken and I can’t print it out.

    A: 你就手写一下吧。

    Nǐ jìu shǒu xiě yīxià ba。

    Just handwrite it on a piece of paper.

    B: 太久不写字，感觉有点失写症了。

    Tài jǐu bù xiězì, gǎnjué yǒudiǎn shīxiězhèng le。

    It’s such a long time since I last wrote Chinese characters with my hand that I kind of forget how to write.