Digital Paper
The year is 1993, and I’m on my way home from school. A
hundred ideas are flowing through my brain, setting my synapses on fire. I have
to get them out. I have to get them written down. As soon as I get home, I go
down to the basement and turn on our family computer, a Macintosh LC II (if I
remember correctly). It clunks and grunts as it starts up, its hard drive
operating at a much higher decibel than anything I know of today. The screen
flickers on, I open up a document in some long forgotten word processor, and I
begin writing, my fingers ticking away at the keys. My thoughts transfer to the
white-gray screen. This is my writing life.
I’ve used a computer to write for as long as I’ve been
writing, but not exclusively. I have entire notebooks of handwritten writing
that can confirm that. But why? When computers were present, a tool that can be
superior to pencil and paper, why would a tech-savvy kid like me choose to
cramp my hand?
In order to keep writing when I was away from home, or to break
up the monotony of my family’s basement, I needed a way to be mobile. Back in
the 90’s, laptops were clunky and expensive. Notebooks allowed a release for my
writing. It wasn’t faster than writing on a computer, in fact, writing on paper
oftentimes created more work because I’d have to transcribe everything back
into the word processor. That never once stopped me though. Better that I get
my thoughts down on paper than let my brain explode.
I continued to use a combination of notebooks and computers
for my writing well into my college years. Eventually, with the purchase of my
first laptop, I gave up the notebooks. It grew too tiresome to transcribe my
oftentimes-illegible handwriting, especially since I could take my laptop
anywhere I went. But I didn’t throw away the notebooks. Even today, I still
write on paper, mainly for brainstorming and ideas, and occasionally to
jumpstart my brain after it’s been at rest for too long.
However, the greatest reason I still write on paper, I
discovered while writing this post. It’s an obvious reason, but it outshines
every single benefit writing on the computer has to offer:
Writing on paper is slow.
As your idea leaves your brain, shoots down your arm, and
flows from your fingers onto the paper, you get to savor your thought during
the transfer. This is probably why when I really need to remember something, I
write it down on paper rather than on the computer. I get a millisecond longer
to think about what I’m writing.
Tapping away at the keyboard gets the ideas out just fine.
You can manipulate your words and check your spelling and grammar as you go.
Computers are great for editing, and they make life so much easier when you’re
on the go, but putting ideas on paper holds a special kind of magic. When your
ideas are in the computer, they’re flickers of light turning on and off
switches in the heart of a machine. When your ideas are on paper, they’re real.
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