These past few years the rise of digital note taking has seemingly taken over higher education. I look around in my lectures, and more often then not, most of the students are taking notes with an iPad or laptop. In the context of education, is this new technology making us better learners? I'd argue not—its making us worse.

Everyone struggles with maintaining their attention. It's not the entire fault of technology: its simply innate to being human. The impressively endless thought-generating minds we possess, of which we experience through consciousnesses, is the general source of our constant distraction. However to no ones surprise, technology doesn't improve this condition at all.

For instance, how many times have you glanced around in class to notice half the people with their laptops open are browsing some other site, texting on discord, or even worse playing a game? I find this occurring far too often; frankly, it is the new normal. Moreover, everyone experiences this even without technology present. Your sitting there trying to pay attention yet your mind keeps wandering adrift:

"Whats he talking about? How is this useful to my degree at all..."

"Is the dining hall serving the same slop today?"

"Should I have double texted Tracy, is she even interested in me?"

"I wonder if my shoes match my outfit, god I need a new pair of jeans I've worn these twice this week!"

The human condition. Its utterly hilarious the amount of suffering we impose on ourselves from these randomly generated thoughts which seemingly appear out of no where. Nonetheless that's a topic for another time.

My point is, If we cannot maintain our attention, we cannot effectively learn. Its as simple as that. Technology only compounds this problem by bombarding our brains with endless stimuli and robbing us of our attention. You come into class with your iPad to take notes and suddenly you've opened a Snapchat notification, start texting your best friend about lunch plans, and your doodling clouds with your Apple Pencil. The Pandora's box of distraction created by technology is truly endless.

Moreover, its a compounding problem. I'll play devils advocate and say it only takes you less than a minute to respond to a text or to choose the perfect color to take notes with your digital pencil. How many times do you do this in class? A few times, five, ten? That adds up, and suddenly you've conceptually missed a third of the lecture. Its possible to counteract this problem by using tools within the technology to prevent distraction, think Apples "Do Not Disturb". These solutions may help, but they're only band-aids to the real problem (its ironic these tools exist in the first place, Apple had to make a "Do Not Disturb" feature since they designed their devices to be so distracting).

Is the ultimate solution to seemingly regress in technological advancement and stay in the age of pencil and paper? I'm unsure, though I know for myself, I am entirely more attentive in class with only a physical notebook and pen in front of me. I hope I've given you something to ponder on, or motivation to experiment for yourself. Thanks for reading!