The vast majority of students rely on laptops – and increasingly AI – to help with their university work. But a small number are going analogue and eschewing tech almost entirely in a bid to re-engage their brains
That’s not what being a Luddite means
What a pedantic (and incorrect) take. Luddite can absolutely mean a person who purposefully avoids technology.
I’m sure I’ll get downvoted, but words can have multiple meanings and take on new meanings over time. Luddite is one of them. This article used it properly.
And anyone who disagrees with me can kiss my linguistics-degree-holding ass.
What a pedantic […] linguistics-degree-holding ass.
Indeed
Yeah, there’s this stereotype that professional/qualified linguistics are like super prescriptive but in reality most either don’t give a shit or are interested in informal language
“Modern day” Luddite. It’s not just using the word isolated! Tittle clearly mixes the meaning with the historical reference. Plus, the one being pedantic were you… But thanks anyway for pointing out the word has two definitions.
In your defense, the statement specifies “modern-day Luddite” which compares it to the historical Luddite bands and excludes the first meaning of the Oxford dictionary.
Also, avoiding is not the same as opposing.
Got a better word?
Title is misleading:
Nick, a philosophy student at the University of Cambridge, stopped using his laptop for university work in the last year of his undergraduate degree. He still types his essays, but lecture notes, revision, and essay planning are all done by hand.
The second sentence contradicts the first:
stopped using his laptop for university work
then
He still types his essays
So basically he’s not taking a laptop in to the lecture hall to take notes etc but is still using a computer to complete his work. Which makes sense as pen & paper in that environment is way more practical anyway.
All assignments are submitted electronically now, and if he’s in philosophy, he will also have to follow formatting requirements like font, font size, margins, and spacing. Practically, he’s doing as much as he is allowed off-computer.
They’re still using computers to do their university work and submit it though. It’s more about them not using a laptop in a lecture hall and using pen and paper instead. That’s not really a big deal considering that’s probably what most people were doing anyway up until relatively recently.
Honestly I used to do the same a decade ago in engineering before changing majors mainly cause my laptop was a fucking brick.
Yeah, the way he does it is basically how everyone did it even 10 years ago. The tools were mostly the same then as they are now, with the exception of AI and the fact that handwriting wasn’t as big a thing anymore when today’s undergrads were in school. If you have a fluid and moderately quick handwriting, paper notes will typically be easier to take and more useful for revising the material later on.
Maybe he’s lugging a massive typewriter around.
I’ve got images of the lecturer giving him death stares every time he starts typing, filling the room with the cliter-clatter of the keys.
It’s great because it’s audible when the lecturer can continue or when not takers are still catching up.
mayb he takes notes with a quill and ink. Dab…dab…dab…
that is hipster
Studies have also shown that taking notes by writing causes better learning outcomes compared to typing.
That’s only true if you don’t refer to your notes. Reviewing notes has a much stronger correlation to remembering than how those notes are generated.
I had a math teacher in highschool that allowed us make a “cheat sheet” during tests – it had to be hand written on an index card. I discovered that if I actually made a “cheat sheet” I rarely needed to look at it. It’s the same for hand-written lists when I’m shopping.
For a lot of people there’s something about actually writing information down (by hand) the makes it “stick” better in memory.
And there are studies about just that. However, when you review your notes, it matters a lot less what method you used to create the notes.
If you’re unlikely to actually study your notes, handwriting is better. If you’re likely to study them, use whatever is most convenient for studying.
Yeah, and just handwriting notes in class and expecting to not have to study and remember everything is only going to work for classes that aren’t information dense. Expecting to do that for classes like physiology or anatomy isn’t going to work unless someone has amazing memory.
Not many people who would be able to list all the proper nerve and muscle locations and body mechanisms just because they sat and handwrote their notes or whatever. At a certain point few remember and it comes heavily down to studying outside of classes, and having good notes that can be referenced to make study material off of is what makes the difference.
For rote memorization, sure.
I’m more talking about conceptual things, say, in math. You don’t need to memorize it, but you do need to remember how it works. For that, I find the textbook to be the most helpful, and class time is to help understand the textbook. For that type of thing, I don’t need to reference my notes in the future, I mostly need to pay attention in class and revisit the material again later to make sure I got it. Handwriting can help with that type of retention.
Math I put more on the side of not having to even need notes, but just understand the formula and it involves practice by doing different problems over and over so you can solve problems on exams. You can just skip class completely and solve problems from the textbook and be good to go. Math is more similar to like learning to do a jump shot and mastering it. Practice is the way to go.
So I don’t put in the same category of classes that are less problem solving or less abstract concepts like philosophy.
Ones that are specific things that need to be recalled with little room for reinterpretation are ones where handwriting things isn’t enough, since the answer is either right or wrong. So memorization outside of class is heavy requirement. There’s just no shortcut to those type of classes and too much info to retain unless someone has a naturally great memory.
Can confirm, switched away from laptop notes to incomprehensible-to-others fountain pen writing. Writing is the important part anyway.
Wasn’t the case for me for information dense subjects like biology related subjects. Found I didn’t retain anything, but worst of all my notes were so messy I couldn’t even use them, so ended up wasting time having to go back and listen to the lecture again to create notes I could study off of and make short summaries of to start memorizing.
Some exceptions to typing has been problem solving basic subjects like math where there’s no rush to try to get down bunch of information, so for that I definitely go handwriting. Doesn’t make sense to type that either. But, for really information dense subjects its typing all the way.
I have ADHD and didn’t get diagnosed or medicated until after I was out of school.
I basically had two options: pay attention in class or attempt to take notes.
I had so many teachers in grade school complain I didn’t take notes, or do homework but that was a different complaint. The issue was that when I took notes I would miss chunks of information as I was writing and my writing was basically illegible because I was trying to put it down fast. If I slowed down to make it neat I would miss even more information. So any notes I took would be next to useless and I wouldn’t remember anything. And that’s without even determining what I needed to write down.
Grade school was also slow passed and repetitive enough that most of the time I could sit and watch or doodle while listening and retain the information. Basically the only thing I struggled with was spelling because it was just rote memorization.
College was a bit harder in some cases beyond general ed, but for the classes I needed to study for I was able to re-watch the recorded lectures and take the time to write stuff out since I could rewind and pause.
I don’t remember anything either whether I write or type. So it is important that I at least take good notes I can then study off of and make flash cards or practice. Only times I actually learned and remembered is for less information dense material like math that is centered around problem solving rather than information retention and regurgitation.
For me class isn’t for remembering or learning. Just being exposed to material that can be used to study and understand outside of it.
Exactly how does he research his essays without internet access?
Well you see he’s stopped using the internet for his university work. But he still uses the internet for research for his essays.
I hate how the term Luddite has been co-opted as a blanket term for someone who rejects technology for any reason. The original Luddites were a labor movement who were angry that technology was taking people’s livelihoods while society was doing nothing to prevent those people from becoming destitute.
Kinda exactly how AI is going to fuck over a lot of people while primarily benefiting the rich people who own it.
Was gonna bring up the same point about Luddites. They were absolutely pro-automation.
They saw greedy corporations using automation, and getting ready to fuck their society into the dirt, so they started petitioning their local governments, tried to negotiate and drew up the plans for a social security program ~150 years before one was actually implemented, smashed a bunch of expensive corporate equipment when the government wouldn’t respond, then the government sided with corporate, used the military to drag all the men, women, and children into public squares and executed every last one of them. Even relatives and companions that weren’t in the group and didn’t participate. So thoroughly annihilated that it left an informational pinhole in the history books, and the name was co-opted into an insult. Now we’re really not sure if John Ludd even existed, maybe the name was just a mythical legend already, and was used as a rally point to boost morale.
And here we are, barely 200 years in the future, about to repeat the fuzzy spots again and rediscover why we brought citrus fruits with us on the ships, with the general population completely oblivious to the brutality the owner class is ready and able to deploy.
What happens if the tech bros are right, and the machine doesn’t need 9/10ths of the human population any more?
Luddite is a derogatory term anyway. One might have legit reasons to be against personally using certain technologies
Indeed. The Luddites the high-skilled technology workers of their time! And were the first bloody chapter of the labour movement, nearly erased from that history by their oppressors. “Blood in the machine” by Brian Merchant is a great history of this.
Laptops are extremely useful. It really doesn’t make sense to avoid them.
I pretty much treat mine as my second brain.
I pretty much treat mine as my second brain.
Withering away your first brain in the process.
Not really.
Just remember to back that shit up.
Nothing like forgetting your brain on public transport and getting instant amnesia for the past five years.
Ever read Stross’s Accelerando? Not far off plot there.
Oh it’s available for free as well. Like on purpose.
Cheers. Read some plot overview or smth seems cool yeah got to read that/those
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html
Hmm. No, got to look into that. Thank you for the suggestion.
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eh. i prefer desktops. i see the use of laptops, but i prefer to use as little disposable tech as possible.
Maybe something like a Framework would be appropriate?
it’s closer to my wants, but basic spreadsheets are all my clients need right now and that really doesn’t need any more processing power than a phone has. i plug a keyboard and a mouse in and i’m able to work off of there. if i really need to i can cast to a screen, even got a couple usb-C male to hdmi male cables.
i’m always going to need some kind of non-pocket computer, and the desktops are so much cheaper. and modifiable! my last one lived 16 years as the main PC. I tend to ship of theseus them.
Getting an old thinkpad is probably better, way cheaper, and fits into the reuse to keep something from going yo the landfill.
As someone who studied without laptop through an entire bachelor’s degree - it is a valid option, and I still often make handwritten notes of study materials.
When you write things down by hand, you process information for longer and use more parts of your brain to do so, which genuinely helps to memorize study materials.
It also allows for more focus. Personally, I found that when I moved, eventually, to using laptop in my studies, it has reduced my attention span and added unnecessary distractions. When all you have at your fingertips is paper and a pen, there is nowhere to get astray.
I do that but its actually because I just don’t own a laptop and don’t want to buy one
Good for these kids. It’s a wise move!
I did that in uni, too. Everyone brought their laptops to the lectures while I took notes on paper. Writing by hand makes your brain absorb the information better I think
Me too, but that’s because my parents bought me a laptop with like a 19 inch screen thinking it would be helpful. That fucker was heavy.
Not just what you think. Hand writing is scientifically better for memory retention and more https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11943480/
It’s undeniably better for memorization. But I think it has diminishing returns for comprehension.
Perhaps it’s just my learning style. I found paying full attention to lectures instead of splitting my attention between dictating and listening, allowed me to absorb more of the material than if I went back to look at notes.
Further, my career best final exam score was 99% on a biology final. I literally re-wrote my study notes out 7 times during the week prior. When I got the test back the following week I couldn’t recall any of the information I had memorized.
You get the best of both worlds if you have a pad and just, kind of, “doodle” -draw pictures, write short sentences or words while primarily paying attention to the lecture. They help you process, and then place the content of the lecture when you do the reading or assigned work.
It does. I vastly prefer writing notes by hand than typing em. But my handwriting sucks when I have to write quickly, and I also don’t like lugging around giant stacks of paper. And so I settled on a digital writing pad, and just do the work to type my notes later. Acts as revision too.
so I settled on a digital writing pad
Which hardware/OS?
Back in university, it was an iPad mini 5, using Notability. Notability has enshittified badly though.
These days (I’m no longer in university so I do write a lot less), I write on a Kobo.
I thought kobo only had readers, TIL.
Same for me. Also I sat in front, becouse in the back I would be disturbed by all the not-lecture related stuff people had open on their laptops.
It does, but in my experience, it’s way worse for recollection.
Electronic devices are superior when it comes to storing and organizing data, which makes it a better tool if you prefer to use active recall as a memorisation method.
I had literal books worth of notes until switching to a tablet (a stylus keeps the benefits of writing, btw). And going over them when preparing for exams was an absolute nightmare.
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As “someone who gets distracted very easily,” he made the change to reclaim his attention span. Ditching his laptop gave him an environment where “YouTube isn’t around the corner” and he can focus on his reading.
This is just avoiding the issue of having a short attention span.
Reminds me a lot of fellow classmates at my college who I discovered hate online classes because they say they can’t stay focused. So I don’t know how these “luddite” students plan to not get distracted when their job will most likely involve sitting in front of a computer.
This is just avoiding the issue of having a short attention span.
I used to be easily distracted during online lectures yet had little difficulty following live lectures. It’s a fundamentally different experience, for whatever reason.
Also, the attention span has to be trained. And training it by working without a distracting computer sounds like a good idea.
Attention span is cultivated, so is discipline. Reading about it is theory. Forcing oneself to do it, in increasingly sizable chunks, is praxis. I’m talking to myself here, too.
This is just avoiding the issue of having a short attention span.
And how do you improve your attention span? By not having distractions available to you.
i much prefered writing notes on paper but i’d cry if i had to write an essay by hand, i hope those students aren’t torturing themselves this way
When I was in undergrad I had to write lots of essays by hand. I’d say about every other course in one of my majors had midterms and finals that were a single question essay to be completed in class during the testing period. I figured that was pretty typical.
Every English class at my uni has huge, like 10-page essays (can you even call them essays at this point?) where we cover scientific developments in our field we discovered in that month.
Everything is handwritten because “there were students who used LLMs, and they need to be sure at least some effort is put into admission”. Like, just to spite on LLM users and all of us just in case.
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o.o holy shit- i mean that’s a valid move, using AI for a handwritten piece sounds like a pain in the ass, but so does just writing 10 pages by hand, AI or not!
i’m glad i got through my higher education marginally before the AI boom hit (i graduated 3 years ago). i only had Turnitin yell “PLAGIARISM???” at me when i used a common phrase that another student used at some point somewhere (think - “The research suggests…”, or sometimes even the page numbers), good times good times
LLM boom has certainly affected education - complicating things for honest students and at the same time empowering cheaters.
Having studied both pre- and post-boom, I can say the amount of times I was offered to use LLMs overall and ChatGPT/Gemini specifically to generate answers as a student has gone through the roof.
And as a soon-to-be educator (I currently pursue PhD and aspire to teach others), I collect ideas on how to combat it, as it tanks the quality of education so much it may as well be nonexistent. But in any case, students that genuinely complete their assignments should not be harshly affected.
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my best idea would be going old school with in person written & oral testing, since clearly nothing digital is of any help anymore. or perhaps require multiple digital WIP versions to be submitted? would also be getting the students into a good habit of making backups of their work. or maybe every essay should come with a director’s commentary (a more loose style reflective essay on the research and work done)
These are all good options! In person testing is certainly on my list, and I like the ideas with WIP versions (especially for larger submissions) and commentary.
I also think of more presentation format submissions where I could ask quick questions to see if the person actually understands what is written. Sort of a small defense.
On technical means, I welcome different forms of AI poisoning in tasks: these don’t always work, but they can catch the least attentive.
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Not using a laptop because it can distract you is like shrinking your stomach because you can’t stop eating. Oh, wait…
Stop eating? As if I would grasp the concept of moderation.
Restricting your diet and skipping meals is the best way to lose weight.
Higher grocery prices are great motivating factor to skip meals.
Went to school before the late '90s: Write everything in paper notebooks & exam books.
Went to school between late '90s-2020s: Tap it all into a computer. Learn nothing.
Went to school late 2020s on: Write in paper notebooks, in between scavenging the ruins for food.
Is taking notes by hand really that exceptional? When I went to college ages ago I only typed essays on a desktop computer, studying was done with textbook + lecture notes, maaybe with a handful of online resources.
I can kind of see this right now. I’m in a first year course and almost everyone has a laptop in front of them. I’m in a fourth year course and most people use paper notes. It could be survivorship or a result of differences in the desks, or it could be generational.
I graduated college a few years back and can count on one hand (with fingers to spare) how many times I saw someone hand writing notes in class
I really like this idea, but its difficult. when I used to attend uni it was more feasible but in 2025 all of my courses require online submissions, discussion, and materials. I can rent a laptop from the library, but only for 4 hours at a time. Of course there are desktops, but realistically if you want work from home you need a computer/tablet. That said I still just borrow my partners and haven’t bothered to buy one.
i think its mostly AI that was the problem. we all used notebooks even last decade, you just cant concentrate with a laptop writing notes.
I got myself a remarkable after seeing a colleague use one and thinking they were cool. An astonishing price for what is essentially a kindle that you can write on, but that is essentially the entirety of its functionality right there. No web browser, no ebook integration, no keyboard, just a thing for scribbling notes with a big battery life. No distractions.
As such, it’s completely ideal for my work diary, meeting notes, D’n’D notes, maps for games that I’ve been playing, random scribbles, all sorts. Quite a lot lighter than the thousands of sheets of paper that would be required otherwise. Also not as rude as popping open a laptop when you’re meeting someone - they can see you’re just making notes and writing to-dos.
Speak for yourself, I’ve taken typed notes successfully just fine.
While browsing Insta and Tiktok on a cellphone in class. That word does not mean what you think it means.
