Whither Indentation?

Readers of this blog, or most blogs for that matter, may have noticed that the beginning lines of the paragraphs are not indented. This is due to the way the word processor of the blog is set up and not due to any decision of mine. The lack of indentation seems to be the coming style and I for one find it awful. One sees this trend in magazines, some books and many office letters. It seems that the current fashion is to identify the beginning of a paragraph by leaving a blank line above it as shown below.

I don't know how this trend started, but I have two guesses. The first is that when word processors came into use the typists decided it would be faster to hit the Return key of the keyboard twice instead of hitting Return and then Tab. The second is that those in charge of designing the way that books and magazines look became infected by the Bauhaus school of thought. Now paragraphs are individual blocks of type joined only by the fact that they are on the same page. It is an attempt to make the printed word into something like the Worker's Block housing envisioned by Walter Gropius. And the printed version is just as ugly.

A paragraph is a collection of thoughts connected by theme or topic. The indentation is, to me at least, the visual indication of a mental pause, the taking of a breath or the stepping in if clutch before the writing starts back in first gear. The lack of indentation is tantamount to grinding gears from a stop. It's jarring. Thoughts in a paragraph take time to develop. The current style makes it appear that the idea is developed from the first word.

The use of a space after a paragraph makes it appear that the subject or topic of the paragraph is unrelated to the previous paragraph. One almost expects to see a number in the middle of the blank line as if another section were being started; perhaps even another chapter. It interrupts the flow of reading. It doesn't indicate a downshifting. It looks almost like a momentary turning off of the engine.

In the big picture of the things that are going on in the world the new fashion of indicating paragraphs is a small thing, but sometimes it is the small thing that is strangely the most irritating.