A 2025 neuroscience study comparing the effects of handwriting and typing on brain activity came to this conclusion: “Handwriting activates a broader network of brain regions involved in motor, sensory, and cognitive processing. Typing engages fewer neural circuits, resulting in more passive cognitive engagement.”
If, like me, you spend most of your time typing on a laptop keyboard, texting on your phone, or maybe using voice-to-text apps, handwriting can feel hard. Physically, your hand starts to cramp up, and your finger throbs. Mentally, there is no autofill, no prompt, no correction. Lo and behold, the direction and content of your writing is completely up to you. You have to slow down to form each letter, and you have to think ahead as to your content and where your sentence is headed. Deletion is messy, and visible.
And that, dear reader, is the beauty of it. Writing something out by hand—whether it be notes on a lecture, a shopping list, a letter, or a draft writing submission—is much slower and more deliberate. You can feel the pressure of the pencil, and the lined page filling up with your words. Revisions and changes jump out at you as black scratches on the page, and if you are working on a written assignment, most likely a first draft will end up crumpled in the waste basket. A blank white page lets you start fresh, sharpened by the revising, but with no predetermined content. It can also let you feel less filtered, like the diaries and journals us Gen Xers remember.
I know it is unrealistic to write a longer assignment by hand. I would encourage you to incorporate some writing by hand into your process. I like to take notes by hand, and to brainstorm an introductory paragraph or two. Once I have figured out the tone of the piece, the speed and efficiency of typing can take over (that’s exactly what I did with this blog post!).
This YouTube video by brain researcher Audrey van der Meer convinced me to incorporate more handwriting into my daily life.
What are your thoughts on handwriting? In the age of AI, do you see more value in disengaging from technology for your writing?
Wow! I never thought that handwriting had these kind of benefits but now that I think about it, it makes sense. Sometimes, I prefer to write because it just deos something to my brain. Almost as if it clears things up because I am physically writing down what has been on my mind. I guess that is another reason why journaling is encouraged.
I found this really interesting because I rarely handwrite anything anymore besides quick notes or a grocery list. Most of my school assignments and work are done on a computer, so typing has become second nature. That said, I do find that when I’m brainstorming ideas or planning a project, writing things out by hand helps me think more clearly and stay focused.
I also think there is value in stepping away from technology occasionally, especially with AI becoming more common. Handwriting forces you to slow down and process your thoughts in a different way, which can lead to more intentional and creative thinking.
This was a really interesting read. I can definitely relate to how different handwriting feels compared to typing. As someone who spends most of the day working on a computer, I find that writing by hand forces me to slow down and think more carefully about my ideas before putting them on the page. I also agree that the process feels more personal and less filtered, especially when brainstorming or taking notes. While technology and AI have made writing more efficient, I think there is still real value in disconnecting occasionally and using pen and paper to organize thoughts, reflect, and be more intentional with the creative process. Thanks for sharing this perspective and the research behind it.
I found this to very interesting! I had always found I did better on exams and felt I understood things better when I wrote by hand. For my own writing, I always felt more engaged and connected to my work. Writing by hand really does really allows me to think, while typing feels more like word vomit and not very personal (especially given how much technology (ai, writing assistants) now play a part in our digital writing).
So fascinating to see these “habits” or “superstitions” ie; writers goiung out to their way to use a perceived “ineficient” or “outmoded” physical practive. Sometimes when I find myself about to begin writing a certain song I can tell whether or not this one calls for its physical presence on the page. Whereas others need to be put into the phone as soona s possible before they run off to another writer haha.