Pen and paper is better than digital

Over the years, just as snail mail has given way to email, traditional note making on paper is now being forsaken by the current generation to take notes in a lecture or a meeting on their various devices. While my pen or pencil runs over my notebook during lectures, the rhythm of the clicks of keys on a keyboard dominate the rustling of sheets. Shorthand is now nearly non-existent, as fast-fingered typists make their way to the posts of secretaries in a lot of places. While typing notes has definitely got its advantages of superior legibility, automated spellchecks, easy classification of files into folders and sub-folders and the availability of system generated dates and times, I believe traditional methods do have a lot of pros over the digital way and perhaps it’s even better than digital methods.

Through my experiences in school in the UAE and here in the US, I have felt that taking notes by hand stimulates the brain to know what’s being written by the hand while listening to what’s being said. This coordination of nerves and muscles tend to improve levels of concentration. Also, I feel the brain learns better when you read something in your own handwriting rather than reading a printed font. Though reading your notes can be tedious if you’ve accidentally skipped some words and if you happen to have a bad handwriting, but this will only make you more alert and improve your hand writing.

Digital note taking is not bad, but it’s definitely not the best. It has turned several cons of traditional note taking into pros, but may not have all pros that a simple pen and paper can offer. Convenience matters more in most cases, which eventually results in people resorting to digital methods in modern times.

- The reader is a bachelors student of geophysics in California, US.