Analog thoughts. Memory, learning, and society.

[xoagray]

It's interesting to me that I'm finding more and more people realizing that as creatures meant to live and interact with an analog world, there are real benefits to keeping certain things in that analog world.

Memory and retention for example are for the most part better when we write things down than when we type them into a computer. Most of us can type significantly faster than we write, and that's actually part of the problem. We type things in so fast that our brains don't have time to absorb them. When we write by hand we make a physical connection between the notes, our eyes and our brain that takes a little longer to do and as such burns in a bit more deeply.

This makes me wonder how it's going to go for all the kids growing up taking notes on laptops instead of notebooks.

I think if the future is digital, we'll end up somewhere between where we are today and where we came from. Things like the reMarkable will end up being how we use digital tech in the future. Digital convenience, but with an analog interface that works better with our analog-centric brains.

I know for myself, switching back with some things to actual paper notes has helped me be a lot less scatterbrained. I still use digital tools, they're just the second layer of things I do now. I need to get that first, important burn in from writing things down by hand.

This also makes me more resilient when I'm not directly in front of a computer. I always have a little notebook and a pen with me, that live in my pocket. When I think of something and want to write it down, I don't grab my smartphone, I grab that notebook. And I look at it often.

There's an added bonus to physicality. Having something to hold in your hands, to read and react to in physical space is another one of those things that make our brains light up more.

I can't help but wonder, if part of the problem we have today with all the craziness that's going on is because we've largely left that physical, analog world. and now live in a totally digital one. We don't make those deep connections or drive those neural pathways home like we used to. And that's maybe made us more susceptible to all the misinformation, lies, "AI" slop, and other things that dominate society today.

Comments

[claudeb]

I also returned to notetaking on paper after many years. But I had to struggle to figure out this invaluable skill myself, because school made me hate it and not want anything to do with it for decades afterwards. Nobody gives you time to think. No-one teaches you how to do it right. They just scream at you if they see you take the pen off the paper for three seconds. Never mind that scientific studies proved that even doodling while the teacher talks at you improves retention. That's not what school is for. It's obedience training.

There are other advantages to writing on paper anyway. A paper notebook doesn't need batteries. It can be a pleasure to write on, in a way computers can't match. It offers more freedom, and doesn't go into stand-by while you're trying to transcribe from it. But no-one will tell you any of this. I weep for kids today.

[xoagray]

Yeah, I honestly do wonder what's going to happen in the next 10-20 years when the kids that never learned cursive, and did all their school work on a computer are adults. I can't say it's going to be better or worse, but I can say it's going to be a pretty different world.

There is some hope though, more and more of those kids are starting to get into analog things. The resurgance of all these old analog technologies is as much in part from the younger people using them for the first time as it is for folks our age using them because we want to again. Digital is faster, easier, but it's not always better and I think as we move forward more and more people are going to figure that out.

But for now, it is a concern. I wonder if this whole mess we're in might not be in part because the cognative skills and attention spans of people are just less than they used to be. Because everything is instant now.

There is definitely truth in the phrase, "newer isn't always better."