A Day Without Computers: What Was Left Behind

I remember when I was a young child in the mid-1980's; my mother would work on her essays and start with using pen and paper. Then type with her electric typewriter. Not everyone had a computer in their home. The price of them was much more than today. Even if they did they were just word processors and spreadsheets. You had to use dictionaries and thesauruses.

I grew up writing on paper a majority of the time until seventh grade. Thinking of a day without a computer is easy. Paper would be more than necessary; it would be the only option. Real thought goes into writing, math, and the capability to research. Students today get to use calculators in class (a requirement). Considered to be a mini-computer. No counting in your head. I believe that many people realize how much more important anything is when you do it manually.

Your attention isn't so focused on the computer either. Serving as an instrument of "writing", and a distraction from what may be going on around you. Anything manually done lets you can have control over your concentration. Plus, you don't get sore eyes or a headache from a computer screen. There is more gratification in correcting your own mistakes.

A quick history in what tools I and others can use in place of the computer are quill pens, fountain to ball point pens, and pencils. The quill pan was used for over 1,000 years starting in the medieval ages. You'd have to use them repeatedly this day in age. Taking up a great deal of your time. Sharpening them and buying the ink to dip them.

The pen was invented in 1884. Its French patent was in the early 1700's. A vastly used tool not having to be sharpened or have its ink replaced. Only ink spills were the primary problem. Fixable by 1915 after ink cartridges were invented. They were outdone by the ball point pen. Pencils, still used today in stick format or mechanical format, were used in ancient Rome. Though made differently and with real lead as apposed to today's graphite.