(S)low tech vs high tech

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

We live in an age now, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, where a great majority seen to think that if something is not computerized, aka digitized, then it is behind the times and of no use.

People seem to be shocked almost that as a Blogger and quite avid computer user I prefer to read books in proper printed format and that I do not use a hand-held computer or such device for note taking and the drafting of articles.

I also make my own notebooks from waste paper and use those and I do get some strange looks at times. Though, the truth be told, many positive comments, more in fact than strange looks.

The truth is that I did have an electronic device for notes and article drafting but it crashed so many times and the screen could only be read in the shade that I abandoned that as a bad idea.

The same goes for electronic address book outside of the computer and the latter too is also backed up via (s)low tech in the form of a paper address book, in this case a Filofax) and on index cards.

As far as my note taking and article drafting is concerned in paper notebooks I do not have to worry as to whether the battery has enough juice to last me the day for all the writing, as there is none, nor does it matter whether I drop it, even from a great height. Even should a main battle tank like a Challenger II run over one of my notebooks the data still will be there though the book may be somewhat worse for wear.

When it comes to other “data”, be it addressed, or whatever, I also would not advise to trust it solely to electronic ways, whether on PC, cell phone, or online.

Not only could you lose you information if your device fails or you lose access to the “cloud” (and I shall use the term “cloud” here for all kinds of online storage) for whatever reason but your data could also get into the wrong hands should your device get lost or stolen or your “cloud” gets hacked.

It is for reason that anything electronic can and will fail at some time that the old-fashioned way of pen and paper cannot be beaten.

(S)low tech can indeed be superior to high tech...

© 2012