Back in early 19th century England, textile artisans concerned about their labor being replaced by newly developed machines protested by destroying some of the machinery. These people were known as Luddites. The word is often used to this day to refer to someone who rejects, or is slow to adopt, certain technology or mechanical innovations. I wonder what those artisans of that earlier era would’ve thought about the breakneck speed of technological innovations today. The speed even takes me by surprise sometimes.
I’m only in my mid 20s (so not that old at all), but I can clearly remember using card catalogs at the local and school libraries all the time. They even taught us how to use them. For some reason, when I was about 9-10 years old, they also thought we should learn proper typing skills, as though we were going to be using typewriters. I was never very good at it, but fortunately a few years later AOL Instant Messenger came out, and my typing speed increased many fold. See, AOL wasn’t completely worthless!
I don’t generally consider myself to be of the Luddite persuasion, but I’m also not really a technophile who has to jump on the latest of everything. I was very slow to adopt a tablet, and I’ve actually regressed from a smartphone to a flip phone that can basically make calls and not much else. Computers and technology are an integral part of my life though, both at work and at home. I like to do lots (and I do mean LOTS) of writing using computers for blogs, forums, and that novel I’ve been working on. Typing just feels easier in those situations, and let’s face it, there’s no such thing as an analog blog (editor’s note: perhaps this is the closest thing.)
That said, there are still many situations where I have to have paper, pencils, and pens in my hands. I have a few Moleskine journals that accompany me pretty much everywhere. They’re arguably more important to me than my iPad. They also have battery life that’s unreal. Literally. The reason I rely on them as much as I do is that I know without any doubt that they will be there. What I write in them isn’t going anywhere. My brain is always churning away on something: An idea. An Invention. A project. How can I do this? How can I solve that problem? Wouldn’t it be great if ____ existed?
There has never been a piece of technology that’s worked for me that allows me to quickly get those things out of my head and into physical space. With the journals, I can just flip them open and write or draw, and it’s done. Permanently. There’s nothing between my brain and my hand doing the writing. I don’t have to interact with any device. I don’t have to think about where to move a cursor. I’ve designed many of my projects and things exclusively in those journals. There’s something real, tactile and special about being able to flip back through the pages and see some rudimentary sketch of some project and realize, “hey, that thing actually exists, sitting next to my kitchen table right now!”
Ultimately, the Luddites destroying a few machines didn’t stop the mechanical and industrial revolutions. Avoiding or rejecting technological innovations today isn’t going to stop technology from advancing either. For me though, I’m sticking with my journals. They just work for my process and feel more “real” than any computer or piece of technology ever could. Ok, and maybe I also harbor a hope that I can pull an Emily Dickinson and have people find all this stuff in some future decade and realize my genius posthumously. That’s the beauty of using journals though. They are truly timeless.