The Killer Feature Of Pen And Paper Is Boredom

One night, as I was writing, my laptop suddenly froze. Goddamit, I said to myself. So, I took a piece of paper and scribbled things down. For me, that turned out to be a significant accident.

The internet contains an infinite stream of newness—it killed boredom. When I hop on the internet, I’m dragged left and right by this and that—memes, tribal wars, news, cat videos, conspiracy theories, notifications, and all the cool, shiny objects.

Pen and paper provides a feature that internet-connected computers can’t: boredom. There’s no search bar to type on, there’s no notification that taps my shoulder. It’s just me—completely alone—doing my thing.

August 4, 2021