E: Illogical note-taking

What is most important in people’s lives? For religious people it would be God first, while most people would rank family/friends, then maybe work/education and further down materialistic things.

Written language was developed to communicate and remember things. We flick out a pen, mobile or laptop when important information is being passed on to us.

But in everyday life, there is very little usage of the written word in the important aspects of life. Very few people take notes in church. Even fewer write down and meditate or analyze output of conversations between close friends or family members – even when it concerns serious issues. When being trained at worked there are not always co-staff or manuals to fill in. But do people take notes? Generally no. I read an article a while back saying people have even stopped bringing shopping lists to the grocery stores.

Education seems to be kept sacred for now. But technology makes it easy to distribute hand-outs, and much humanitarian studies focuses more on critical thinking than piles of facts. Still, students seem to be the remaining note-takers.

Why is it one seizes to do so outside of school? Maybe because it’s conventional, but habits aren’t always good. Maybe it’s because of reliance on the memory, but we have never been so bombarded with information and impulses. Maybe it’s because we are not getting graded, but doesn’t our performance test our character or friendship?

Think about all the thoughts you have throughout the day that you quickly forget if not said out load to someone else; just like dreams. From one in favor of small journalism-looking notebooks for all.