I was actually thinking of "touch typing" as being the standard method that is taught in schools and typing classes - put your fingers on the home row to begin and use all eight fingers to type.
I type by mainly using two fingers, with occasional pinkie and middle finger use. I also use my thumbs for the spacebar sometimes.
If you define "touch typing" as not having to look at the keyboard, then I guess I do touch type and I apologize to the author. I was mostly taking offense to the idea that there is only one correct way to type.
I don't do the home row touch-typing stuff, either. Nothing formally taught, all organically grown typing from using computers since I was a teenager. I'm typically in the range of 80-100 wpm depending on the test.
Primarily only using the index fingers, thumbs for shift keys, spaces and sometimes the other fingers will hit keys in the farthest reaches, depending on what the index fingers are doing.
It's kinda neat-- I discovered I type different words differently. For example, if I type "provide" my left hand index finger hits the "v", but in "forever", my right hand index finger does. Not a beat skipped-- they just do it.
I think typing with fewer fingers does put a maximum on my typing speed, but I'm perfectly comfortable with ~100 wpm.
The issue is probably staring at the keyboard while you type, rather than not touch-typing "properly". I learned to type exactly the same way, not quite proper, but at 80-100 wpm.
I switched to the Dvorak keyboard layout about two years ago. Same speed, but it feels better -- much more time on the home row, for one thing. I think it's worth trying if you're interested, but it's your life. ABCD (http://www.gigliwood.com/abcd/abcd.html) was helpful (and funny). Just dive in, give it a month or so of normal typing. The first few days will be disorienting -- very old habits are being disrupted. (Also, you can switch back and forth once you're accustomed to it, but doing so initially will probably make learning much harder.)
It works quite well with Emacs, but hjkl navigation in vi becomes a bit awkward. (I tend to use Emacs on my own computers and vi on others' Qwerty-default systems, FWIW.)
Forgive the neuroscience buff here, but I disagree.
By looking at the keyboard, you're relying on vision to direct motor actions and detect errors (fingers in wrong positions, etc.). This requires the involvement of association cortex in, I believe, the parietal lobe, to integrate vision, somatosensory (i.e, touch), proprioception (i.e, body position) stimuli. The end result is that typing speed is limited by the processing speed of the cortex.
On the contrary, pure touch typing does not involve vision. Somatosensation and proprioception can be integrated in the hindbrain and spinal cord, and so touch typing can be done almost exclusively there, with only goal-oriented, "type this word" input from the cortex. Vision comes in later to detect errors, but because it is not in the loop, touch typing is not limited by it.
