Pencil and Paper

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   Amie Warrenposted 13 years ago

   Does anyone here still use paper and pencil/pen anymore? I get so tired of the computer. I really enjoy writing and organizing things in notebooks. I love the way it feels to actually "write" something. Having my life out there for all to see is sometimes too raw. I have spiral notebook journals that I have been keeping for many years...dozens of them. I remember hiding under my bedspread with a flashlight writing in them when I was a teenager, long after everyone had gone to bed, the putting them back in their hiding place.
   
   When my husband locked me out of the house, I was not worried that he would find them, because I was smart enough to hide them in his closet, where he would never look for anything of mine. He had so much stuff, he didn't even know what he had. They were in three huge Rubbermaid containers on his top closet shelf. He tore my room apart, but he never looked there, and he was totally shocked when I went back to get my things (under police escort) and took them. It was so gratifying to walk into his closet and take my journals, and there was not one thing he could do to stop me.

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   Pcunixposted 13 years ago

   It must be thirty years since I have written anywhere but on a computer - maybe longer.

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   Maddie Ruudposted 13 years ago

   I agree, there is something profoundly satisfying about writing with pen on paper, especially where personal content is concerned.  I always write poetry by hand, for example.  There is something about crossing things out to make a revision, rather than simply hitting the backspace, that is key to my creative process, somehow.  I imagine it's important for keeping a journal, too.  The fact that it takes longer to write out a sentence helps you refine what it is you're saying as you go.

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      Amie Warrenposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Maddie, I wish I could find it now, but I read a study that said that today's kids, who never write but only type on computers, have lowered cognitive ability when forced to write on paper.  Their brains are not equipped to handle doing things manually.
      
      It also said that people who work with their hands in their jobs do better on paper than on computers, no matter how well they type.
      
      There is such a thing as tactile learning, and evidently there are things we cannot learn and parts of our brain we cannot access through typing.

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