A pen and paper should be to every human as rabbits are to James Franco, as sponges are to Jennifer Lawrence and as throwing pies at naked women once was to Charlie Chaplin. No, basic writing tools shouldn’t turn into a common fetish. No, they shouldn’t become something we sexualize as many Hollywood icons do with things like live animals or the degradation of bare females getting hit with classic American sweets. But instead, a pen and paper should become more essential in our lives: things we get excited to have because of how much they contribute to our well being.
As a kid, all I would do was write and draw—put pen to paper. But, there was a period of time when the image of colorful bubble iMacs and noisy keyboards became more appealing than doing everything by hand. Computers and the Internet together became more attractive and efficient to use for both school and fun. At a young age in the early 2000s, I was blinded by the tech like so many others around me.
The majority of people living in the U.S. today are still blinded by technology and gadgets. Take college kids for example. Touchscreen tablets are your rabbits. Shiny new MacBook Pros are your sponges. Smartphones that talk to you are your naked women and life-proof cases for them are your pies. All these tools are attractive and handy at one point or another. But, it must be known that when it comes to writing, you are creating restraint when typing on these devices rather than writing by hand.
In class, it’s been proven that writing notes by hand gives you a better understanding of what is being taught, a deeper conceptual understanding that sticks with you. A study done by Pam Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel Oppenheimer of UCLA shows that typing notes on laptops gives you only a shallow understanding of material that doesn’t last in your long-term memory. Typing takes less time, but it also takes less mental energy and less engagement of the brain compared to handwritten notes. This makes information harder to absorb, unlike one of J. Law’s sponges.
When lecture notes are written by hand, there is a physical connection between you and the words you are writing down. Research done by Patricia Wade of Indiana University explains how the sequence of movements that our fingers and thumb create while writing stimulates cells in our reticular activating system, the part of the brain that filters incoming information and assigns different degrees of importance to new information. So, to take effective handwritten notes, make sure you listen instead of worrying about getting everything down verbatim, word-for-word, and let your brain and hand do the rest. Listen. Reword. Jot down. Highlight if you need to. Use underlining, draw arrows and physically map out the information you are receiving in a way that you will comprehend.
Your brain and the words you write down form a relationship. The brain becomes the clingy half since it feels attached to the words and feels things for them even if there’s nothing there. Sound familiar? This weirdly powerful coupling that happens is also why things like handwritten letters and cards to loved ones are so much more meaningful than sending text messages or writing on people’s Facebook walls. Admittedly, typing a quick “HBD” to your friends on their birthdays gets your message across and only takes a few seconds to post. But, when you take time to physically form personalized sentences for whomever you’re writing to, that’s when human-to-human bonds can become stronger without face-to-face interaction.
Whether you pick a ruled spiral notebook, a nice leather Moleskin, a makeshift journal made of paper from a recycling bin, or give in to the odd American author fetish of writing on legal pads because it looks effortlessly cool—I prefer the yellow ones—practice the art of writing. Pick up that pen you found on the ground and put it to work. You’ll actually learn from your two-hour lectures and not fall asleep or get distracted, hopefully. And you’ll finally be in a relationship, with words that is, while maintaining your human relationships when you send someone a personalized letter or card. If you don’t do it for class notes or corresponding, at least write for fun. Your handwriting will improve. Your imagination will run freely.
And who knows? You might come up with something worth sharing with the world.