The Pen Is Mightier Than The Laptop

[Noihvo]

[Antonio90]

This is a very interesting topic indeed. I always studied by a combination of writing and reading aloud until my second year in college, needless to say my retention dropped dramatically.

I returned to handwriting study and note-taking with the adquisition of an Ipad Pro and the apple stylus. It was way better (it also allows you to annotate pdfs, highlighting key ideas and adding margin notes) but, still, I always come back to the good ol' handwriting in paper. It's better for your eyes and you can only write down things (I don't draw at all), while the iPad, laptop or whatever is a permanent opportunity to procrastinate, look for a new ink or pen review, play a short game or chat with a friend or twenty.

 

I can see the "electronic handwriting" giving almost all the benefits needed to someone with stone-hard will, but there is just not enough to love in it. No beautiful and pleasurable feeling when writing, no choice in more feedback or smoother writing, and screen colors are just a mock of the rich tones of inks. Also, the paper.

Electronic devices are a magnificent tool, but they lack the soul and beauty of classic handwriting. I always find myself longing for pen and paper when taking notes or writing down whatever floats my boat at the moment.

 

(Edited mostly for typos)

Edited December 3, 2017 by Antonio90

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

 

Electronic devices are a magnificent tool, but they lack the soul and beauty of classic handwriting.

 

I think it depends on the tools, too. My good, old (loud) mechanical keyboard has more soul than most of my recently acquired fountain pens. It's got the looks, the characters, it's got its quirks, and it's got history, because it's been used and used and used for years and it's still going strong. Same with my trackball. The "tick tick" of the ball rolling around is one of the best sounds in my daily routine.

 

I know I'm barking up the wrong forum, but with the right tools I think we can enjoy both writing and typing in near equal measure.

[Antonio90]

 

I think it depends on the tools, too. My good, old (loud) mechanical keyboard has more soul than most of my recently acquired fountain pens. It's got the looks, the characters, it's got its quirks, and it's got history, because it's been used and used and used for years and it's still going strong. Same with my trackball. The "tick tick" of the ball rolling around is one of the best sounds in my daily routine.

 

I know I'm barking up the wrong forum, but with the right tools I think we can enjoy both writing and typing in near equal measure.

 

I do partially agree. I love mechanical keyboards too, now I've got a modern one with the hardest switches I could find, but those big old noisy, buckling spring keyboards are a joy to use. Quite hard to find nowadays though.

 

The main difference, and the "soul" I'm talking about, is the fact that you are doing something physical, like an artisan, and that makes for a unique product. I'm not talking about the content; there's no difference in that regard. I guess it's more about paper and ink combinations, your personal lettering and the manual ability involved. A handwritten page is something qualitatively different from a digital typewritten page.

A word processor or writing program's page is a virtualization, it's efficient, clean and standard, but it's not the "real" thing. Just like skype is not talking face to face with someone.

 

As for the "soul" of the tools themselves, I don't doubt an old, trusty keyboard, made to last and with years of personal use and having made it yours, has as much soul as any fountain pen, and more than many of them.

 

EDIT: rephrasing and typos. It was quite terribly written.

Edited December 13, 2017 by Antonio90

[dogpoet]

Have a look online for "Unicomp" Antonio: they sell keyboards that are designed around buckling spring mechanisms like the old IBMs, rather than Cherry switches or imitations like most of the rest of the mechanical keyboards available at the moment. They're expensive, though.

(I also suspect that you'd be banned from taking a keyboard that makes that much noise into a university lecture anyway: I'd always thought that the reason keyboards invariably have membrane keyboards rather than ones with mechanical switches is to keep them as quiet as possible...)

[sidthecat]

It’s part of the nerd impulse, and also a handwriting exercise, but I tend to take notes on tv shows I watch. I like information, and it’s a useful practice for a writer, but I also like the look of a well-written page of writing with ascenders and descenders all slanting the same way.

[Krulle]

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Laptop ...

 

and considerably easier to write with!

[pararis]

Interesting, I wrote a long, thoughtful post here a few days ago, and it has disappeared.

 

I had questioned the whole validity, generally, of "note-taking," suggesting perhaps a more effective method would be to simply sit and devote 100% of brain power to listening and comprehending -- and perhaps afterwards writing down some salient points. Such a method served me well both in school and professional life.

 

My conclusion was that perhaps the mind is more powerful than the pen or the laptop. I guess neither is superior to magic as things in this world just seem to sometimes vanish.

[TassoBarbasso]

Ive been working as a university lecturer for five years; in my experience with a sample of around 150 students* over the years, the best performers are always those who write notes by hand, and with just one exception, people who use FPs tent to be even better. It might be due to their social background (maybe they can afford FPs because theyre from an upper middle class background, and therefore were given more educational and cultural opportunities than people from lower income families), but I think it may be because FPs force you to write a little bit slower than BPs, maximizing the information processing effect described in the OPs link. In other words, if you learn better by taking notes with a pen because youre forced to process and summarize info, you are likely to lear even better if you write with a pen that slows down your writing a little bit more (not too much though! )

 

* the sample is not large, but because I teach to small/medium size, seminar-type classes of 15-25 people per semester, I get to know each of them pretty well.

Edited December 15, 2017 by TassoBarbasso

[Antonio90]

but I think it may be because FPs force you to write a little bit slower than BPs, maximizing the information processing effect described in the OPs link. In other words, if you learn better by taking notes with a pen because youre forced to process and summarize info, you are likely to lear even better if you write with a pen that slows down your writing a little bit more (not too much though! )

I don't know, but fountain pens doesn't slow me down at all, I can write faster with them than with a ballpoint, and aroud the same speed as with a gel pen. Maybe it has something to do with enjoyment? It's a fact that enjoying something makes your retentive about it way better, even without conscious effort. And (nowadays at least) fountain pens are tools people use because they enjoy and love them; they are not the efficient choice anymore, so writing partially because you like to do it probably helps making it less of a chore and more of an enjoyable act.

 

Something that helps my memory a lot, and also slows me down quite a bit, is trying to make beautiful script. I'm now learning spencerian, and when I write my studying notes with a kind of spencerian influenced cursive, everything sits just better and more solidly in my brain. It could be my need of thoughtfully forming the letters, the fact that I have to come back after each word to put on the "i" and "j" dots or "t" dashes or just that I'm going slower and that just helps memory.