a n a l o g . s c r i b e

Keeping an analog system can be difficult in a digital world. Everyday, I see more and more people relying on digital technology and computer based workflows, which also manage to exclude the use of paper. For example, somebody recently told me that their company was “going green” by making everything paperless. Now, when I use paper printouts to edit things, etc, I still try to recycle paper and print on both sides to conserve paper. I get the feeling that sooner or later, even mentioning paper will be taboo.

If you know me, you know that I don’t like inefficiency. Time, being as precious as it is, doesn’t need to be wasted on things like reinventing the wheel or redundant tasks. As a result, I’m often torn when I receive an assignment that needs to be done on the computer. My gut instinct is to do it on paper first and then re-enter it into the computer. Maybe that works for some folks, but I hate redoing tasks. So even if I’m an analog person, I’ll do a lot of things on the computer to avoid having to repeat something.

Is the analog world just fading out and being subsumed by the digital? Perhaps. I’m not convinced that everything needs to be done digitally. One analogy would be tablet pc technology. I’ve used a tablet pc for a few years now. On a tablet pc, you can go into slate-mode, which means that writing on the computer screen with a digital pen is the primary method of input. For a while, I was convinced that I needed to do everything in slate-mode, even drafting documents. Keep in mind, I’m a fairly fast typer, so by attempting to write Word documents by hand, I suffer a large drop in words per minute. Well, one lesson I learned was that trying to do everything in slate-mode was silly. You should only be using slate mode for things that lend themselves to being optimally used in slate-mode. For example, taking notes in slate-mode is great. I can draw arrows, highlight things, and best of all, since I can’t write as fast as most people speak, I am forced to process everything *before* I put it down on paper, which helps tremendously with comprehension. Anyway, the point is to use the right tool for the job. If you’re going to have to write a long paper in a very short amount of time, don’t do it by hand. At the same time, don’t pull out a computer and use a fancy program if all you want to do is create a grocery list.

That said, I’m not convinced that doing everything digitally is better than doing it on paper or by hand. And as long as I think so, I’ll keep doing some tasks on paper. I’ve noticed I’ve been doing more things electronically. Some of that is a result of the policies at work, and some of it is because it’s simply more efficient to do certain tasks on the computer. Though, as I do more and more tasks electronically, I feel like I’m inching closer to a world where analog tools are obsolete. Frankly, it scares me a little.

If nothing else, I’ll always have my personal journal where I can write things out by hand. Yay for some forms of indispensable analog tools.