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“Embrace the wobble,” Laura Edralin, a calligraphy teacher, told me as I wrote something that could only be described as an extremely wobbly “K.” It was my first calligraphy class, and, sitting alongside other students who seemed to know what they were doing, I was feeling very out of my depth.

I’m not particularly good at painting, pottery, puppet-making or any other kind of art-practice that I’ve seen friends pursue, to unwind and express themselves creatively.

In fact, I never would have signed up for a calligraphy class had it not been for a New York Times assignment.

As a breaking news reporter in London, my focus is filing articles with speed. Since I type much faster than I write by hand, I write by hand less and less. And when I do write by hand, I later can have trouble deciphering what I’ve scribbled.

But I’ve always been curious about calligraphy. Growing up, I had watched my father use it to address birthday cards and thank-you notes. So when I started to see calligraphy videos pop up on social media, I wondered: In the digital age, why is this ancient art form experiencing a revival, particularly among young people?

Through my reporting, I learned that the revival was happening, in part, because of social media. On TikTok, users can find how-to videos or watch mesmerizing clips of experienced calligraphers at work. More and more people are posting about it: There were 239 percent more posts with #calligraphy in June 2024 than in June 2023.