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‘I’m a modern-day luddite’: Meet the students who don’t use laptops
(www.dazeddigital.com)
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this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2025
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Title is misleading:
The second sentence contradicts the first:
then
So basically he's not taking a laptop in to the lecture hall to take notes etc but is still using a computer to complete his work. Which makes sense as pen & paper in that environment is way more practical anyway.
All assignments are submitted electronically now, and if he's in philosophy, he will also have to follow formatting requirements like font, font size, margins, and spacing. Practically, he's doing as much as he is allowed off-computer.
They're still using computers to do their university work and submit it though. It's more about them not using a laptop in a lecture hall and using pen and paper instead. That's not really a big deal considering that's probably what most people were doing anyway up until relatively recently.
Honestly I used to do the same a decade ago in engineering before changing majors mainly cause my laptop was a fucking brick.
Yeah, the way he does it is basically how everyone did it even 10 years ago. The tools were mostly the same then as they are now, with the exception of AI and the fact that handwriting wasn't as big a thing anymore when today's undergrads were in school. If you have a fluid and moderately quick handwriting, paper notes will typically be easier to take and more useful for revising the material later on.
Studies have also shown that taking notes by writing causes better learning outcomes compared to typing.
That's only true if you don't refer to your notes. Reviewing notes has a much stronger correlation to remembering than how those notes are generated.
I had a math teacher in highschool that allowed us make a "cheat sheet" during tests -- it had to be hand written on an index card. I discovered that if I actually made a "cheat sheet" I rarely needed to look at it. It's the same for hand-written lists when I'm shopping.
For a lot of people there's something about actually writing information down (by hand) the makes it "stick" better in memory.
And there are studies about just that. However, when you review your notes, it matters a lot less what method you used to create the notes.
If you're unlikely to actually study your notes, handwriting is better. If you're likely to study them, use whatever is most convenient for studying.
For rote memorization, sure.
I'm more talking about conceptual things, say, in math. You don't need to memorize it, but you do need to remember how it works. For that, I find the textbook to be the most helpful, and class time is to help understand the textbook. For that type of thing, I don't need to reference my notes in the future, I mostly need to pay attention in class and revisit the material again later to make sure I got it. Handwriting can help with that type of retention.
Can confirm, switched away from laptop notes to incomprehensible-to-others fountain pen writing. Writing is the important part anyway.
I have ADHD and didn't get diagnosed or medicated until after I was out of school.
I basically had two options: pay attention in class or attempt to take notes.
I had so many teachers in grade school complain I didn't take notes, or do homework but that was a different complaint. The issue was that when I took notes I would miss chunks of information as I was writing and my writing was basically illegible because I was trying to put it down fast. If I slowed down to make it neat I would miss even more information. So any notes I took would be next to useless and I wouldn't remember anything. And that's without even determining what I needed to write down.
Grade school was also slow passed and repetitive enough that most of the time I could sit and watch or doodle while listening and retain the information. Basically the only thing I struggled with was spelling because it was just rote memorization.
College was a bit harder in some cases beyond general ed, but for the classes I needed to study for I was able to re-watch the recorded lectures and take the time to write stuff out since I could rewind and pause.
Maybe he's lugging a massive typewriter around.
I've got images of the lecturer giving him death stares every time he starts typing, filling the room with the cliter-clatter of the keys.
It's great because it's audible when the lecturer can continue or when not takers are still catching up.
mayb he takes notes with a quill and ink. Dab..dab..dab...
I used to take my laptop into the lecture hall but I hardly ever actually used it.
Same. I mostly used it for homework between classes.
I found the most effective strategy for me was to do the reading before class, bring the book in to refer to, listen intently for things I didn't get from the book, and reread the section after class. If the professor specifically called out something to take notes on, I'd either do that on my phone or pull out my laptop (esp just before midterms or finals).
My handwriting is awful and I almost never refer to my notes anyway.
Exactly how does he research his essays without internet access?
Well you see he's stopped using the internet for his university work. But he still uses the internet for research for his essays.