What does "latter" refer to? and How the last part of the sentence?

Former and latter refer to the first and the last of two previously mentioned things. I have put them in bold in the more complete quotation below and identified them {so}.

“She explains that two of the most common arguments she hears from detractors regarding the decline of handwriting is that not protecting it will result in a “loss of history” and a “loss of personal touch”.

On the former {the loss of history} she counters that 95% of handwritten manuscripts can’t be read by the average person anyway – “that’s why we have paleographers,” she explains, paleography being the study of ancient styles of writing – while the latter {loss of personal touch} refers to the warm associations we give to handwritten personal notes, such as thank-you cards.”