Digital vs. Paper

In a segment by NPR about the future of paper (which can be found in it's entirety here) Moleskine notebooks were at the center of a discussion about whether people were turning to digital instead of paper.

 

It seemed like paper might have been going "the way of the rotary phone", but paper seems to have become back in style. There has also been recent research done, which has found advantages to taking notes on paper.

A Starbucks on the campus of a college campus, has people using both laptops as well as notebooks. Evan DeFransciso, a 20-year-old student, says he makes a clear demarcation: digital for schoolwork and paper for "my creative writing ... short stories, poems, personal thoughts."“The stuff that really matters goes onto the paper"

Moleskine has seen a steady growth in tandum with the digital growth.

During some recent market research the proximity of the sales of Moleskine's notebook to an Apple store led "Moleskine CEO Arrigo Berni to conclude that his customers are "not people who are clinging to paper with a nostalgic feeling, but rather people that have both digital and analog as part of their lives."

Even Angelia Trinidad, recent college graduate and self-proclaimed gadget freak, who designed her own paper planner was more partial to the connection she had with pen and paper. "It's this thing that is so intuitive. It's between you and paper and a pen. It's kind of meditative," she says. "When I'm on the phone, it's never meditative. It's always task-y."

The benefits of writing on paper goes passed just the emotional connection. A recent study suggests otherwise. Pam Mueller a teaching assistant for an introductory psychology class at UCLA and her professor, Daniel Oppenheimer decided to put digital vs. paper to the test. "They asked about 50 students to attend a lecture. Half took notes on laptops and half with pen and paper. Both groups were then given a comprehension test.

"It wasn't even close. The students who used paper scored significantly higher than those who used laptops."

So apparently paper is still as important as digital and we couldn't agree more!