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People are captivated by the new and rush toward it. Not long ago, pride in beautiful handwriting, ink pens, and golden nibs meant a great deal to most writers, intellectuals, academics, and state officials. Some young people would boast about their elegant handwriting when writing a letter to their beloved. But since nothing in life is constant except change, people abandoned the pen. Today, there are university graduates who have no connection to the pen or to handwriting. When asked, they reply with arrogant confidence: “I don’t need to write by hand; I write on the computer and on my phone screen.” People are captivated by the new and rush toward it.
This is what happened when European countries rushed to introduce digital education in their schools, replacing the use of computers and digital tablets with handwritten reading and writing. Those countries boasted about this achievement, claiming they were introducing digitalization starting from kindergarten! But today, these countries—including Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, Italy, and Denmark—are turning back to valuing printed books and handwriting, after realizing that this approach has produced generations illiterate in reading and writing. Graduates emerge who cannot write a paragraph about themselves or memorize the multiplication table. This has led experts to describe the phenomenon as “brain rot,” due to the decline in concentration, thinking, analysis, and deduction caused by the excessive consumption of superficial digital content.
Since the beginning of my youth, I have been in the habit of memorizing addresses. Whenever I visit a friend’s house for the first time, I instruct my mind to pay close attention, track, and memorize road signs. After that first visit, my mind stores the friend’s address in a special file and retrieves it whenever I plan to visit. However, with the emergence of the “Google Maps” app, I rushed to it, as did others. Now, whenever I get into my car, I rely on “Mr. Google” to guide me to the destination, while I shut the gates of my mind to thinking about the address. Consequently, today I cannot find my friends’ houses, especially those I visit infrequently, without the help of Mr. Google. Even if I have the address, I have forgotten how to locate places by their addresses.
People are captivated by the new and rush toward it. I know, as do others, that we are obsessed with imitating the West. Yet Western countries, particularly those with advanced education systems, high student intelligence levels, and exemplary teaching methods, have restored the value of the pen, notebook, handwriting, and writing. They are nearly banning the use of mobile phones in schools. This shift follows reports confirming a decline in students’ reading comprehension and concentration levels “due to excessive screen use.” Furthermore, research has revealed that uncalibrated expansion of digital tools has not fulfilled the rosy promises of increased student achievement; rather, it has led to mental distraction and weakened skills.
People are captivated by the new and rush toward it. Please, rush back to the pen, notebook, handwriting, writing, and reading. Keep your children away from phones so they can learn to face life. For whoever loses the ability to memorize a friend’s address today will tomorrow lose the ability to remember their own address.
Taleb Al-Rafai
