Physical tools in a digital age7. There is something more. What might seem disadvantages of physical tools, are
actually plus sides of it.
On a keyboard a single stroke is required to write a letter. And it’s always the same
one regardless of the letter you are typing. Typing is faster than longhand writing and
that’s why many people prefer it. Longhand writing is not mnemonic, it’s an
experience that involves different parts of the brain.
When we take a marker and write on a sticky note, we have to use different muscles,
we have to feel the marker and the way it moves, feel the paper, look at the signs we
are making (each letter is a different movement). These activities stimulates our
memory and make it simple to remember the concepts.Also longhand writing is slow,
so you have to take your time, and you have to synthetize the concepts. The space on
the paper is limited, so you have to carefully choose what to write.
When we take notes with a keyboard, we tend to record them verbatim rather than
elaborating them ourselves. We focus on single words and not on concepts.
The message your brain gets when you write by hand is ‘Pay attention! This is worth
the effort!’. If you are taking the time to write it down, then it must be important.
Writing by hand activates the reticular activating system (RAS), the part of the brain
that signals to the cortex to wake up and pay attention.
According to research: You learn faster; You recall more; You are more creative
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