What does Tom Benecke’s use of a typewriter suggest about the time in which this story is set?

Tom Benecke uses a typewriter and a pencil to write down research notes in "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket." This is an indication that the typewriter was either the most advanced writing technology or the most accessible at the time of his writing. Today, most people have access to computer word processors that are more efficient than typewriters. The typewriter was invented in the late nineteenth century and became accessible to most people in the twentieth century. This shows that the story is set at a time when the typewriter was the most commonly used technology in writing. It may be any time between the early and the late twentieth century. The use of computers for writing only became popular in the late twentieth century.

Tom Benecke is using a typewriter to write up the research notes he needs to gain a promotion. Typewriters are rarely used today, as just about everybody has access to a computer and word processing software. But for much of the 20th century, typewriters were an essential writing tool for authors, secretaries, and journalists alike. "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" was first published in 1956, when the use of typewriters was particularly widespread. It wouldn't be for another thirty years or so that word processors became more widely used. Ironically, it is the good old-fashioned pencil-written notes—not the typewritten pages—that Tom is anxious not to lose and which cause him to take a potentially fatal step onto the window ledge outside.