Don’t know what they’ve taught you about technology, but consider my proposition: There’s nothing like pen and paper for real, deep, uninhibited writing. Computers are good for essays. Articles. Emails. Announcements. Opinions. Yet, when it comes to torturing your mind until it comes up with something,.. well, not necessarily spectacular but at least personally meaningful, staring at a screen is not half as effective.

Think about it. First of all you’re constantly distracted by flashing arrows, buttons and icons. You’re disoriented by the mere existence of limitless possibilities, most of which have little to do with creativity. Let’s check what’s going on in the world, you say. Or, what if I’ve just received a really important email? Why not chat to my friends, play solitaire, photoshop my self to see how I’d look with blond hair…

And you don’t even have to visualize the letters of the alphabet. They’re lying there, defenseless, underneath your fingers. Forming strange phrases. Trying to imprison your ideas into 26 stupid little signs someone conjured before you. Reminding you that what you’re about to say has probably been said already. Several times. Offering you the lazy comfort of a starting point, if you ‘re stuck; reassuring you with the promises of delete and undo.

So you join the mass production of words and meanings, armed with your high-tech keyboards, and if you make a mistake you’ll simply press a button and it’s all history. No, not history, since even history is written somewhere. Eradicated. Lost forever.

You keep typing, forgetting about the ruthless, liberating vastness of a blank, disturbingly empty page, which you can use in any way you want: scribble illegible gibberish, make a hole in it, or, in a bout of anger, tear your enemy in pieces and burn it to ash. Make paper boats and planes and boxes, or absent-mindedly fill it with badly drawn houses, suns, forests, then suddenly realise that you have your story- it’s all there, in the picture.

Now, if you wish, you may type it. Still, how much do you respect art that can be cancelled with a single click?