Being that I am a programmer by trade, I spend a lot of time in front of a computer. As a result, I have a digital work flow for pretty much everything
in my life. However, I haven’t been able to hone in a work flow for writing on the computer. For me, I find that going analog and using pen and paper
is always the best approach.
People have been writing for literally thousands of years, and we still use to use paper in the year 2014, a year where I have more computational power in
my pocket than was used to put a man on the moon. It has always has cracked me up how this computational power is being used to take selfies and look at pictures
of cats, but I digress.
Why are people still to use paper? I like to think that it has something to do with being distraction free, and just allowing you to take your thoughts and put them on paper. However, I think this might have something to do with out ancient Mesopotamian ancestors who first started writing in Sanskrit. (I should check my facts. Maybe they weren’t the first, but you get the point). Our ancient ancestors started doing this and they created a bond between humans and the writing process, one which dictated that it should be on paper (or rather clay for the Mesopotamians).
I was born at a time when computers and the internet were around and doing pretty well to say the least. I also lived at a time where school was still taught on blackboards, and got to see school being taught on a SmartBoard during my High School years. The fact that we still use paper has always bothered me. I have always wondered why, especially since we have things like iPads.
Now I have come to realize that perhaps this dates back to the Mesopotamians. Humans are an interesting bunch. We like to explore new frontiers, yet are resistant to change at the same time. It is because we have been writing in analog for so long that we don’t want to change it to a digital form.
There is also the less distracting part which I find to be quite nice. I would have probably been notified about a couple emails and social media notifications on my computer by now. Being that I’m not on it, I was able to write uninterrupted, which is nice, very nice. Everyone should make sure to take a little time away from the screen each day. You never know what will turn out.
I certainly didn’t expect to write this :-).
P.S Yes, I used an emoticon on paper! This gives me an idea for another piece of writing!
Glorious Trainwreck 