The Pen Is Mightier Than The Pixel

by Coffinshaker on July 8, 2013 at 12:00 am

With all our great technology and sophistication, have we successfully defeated analog?  Or is the pen still mightier?

That is today’s discussion.  The replacement of analog with digital counterparts and how well they are holding up.

So let’s start off with some things digital has done well… and really well.  Such as word processing / writing.  I don’t think today’s youth (myself included) could possibly comprehend using a typewriter or handwriting lengthy reports for both school and work.  MS Word has pretty much made the paper medium extinct.  So I’ll go ahead and blame that for my terrible handwriting skills… I mean, it was illegible before I used computers, but I’m sure it would have ruined it anyways.  >)

Then there’s email.  Wow has it killed off the post office!  Just like the telegraph killed the pony express.  I don’t remember the exact figures, but the US Post office alone hemorrhages money in the millions per day.  Still, email has made it so easy to communicate with folks for basically no cost at all.

And then… There’s the not so greats… Like oh, wifi calling.  As a new smartphone owner, I feel that the actual ability to call has been downgraded with the better technology.  So unless you connection is blazing fast, it will sound like you’re talking inside of a diving helmet during a solar flare.

Finally… we get to drawing… I’ve tried drawing on the cellphone with the special pen.  I thought it would replace my little mini notebook… no dice!  Something about the pen just makes things look better and move quicker.  That said, I’ve completely unlearned how to draw on paper seriously.  Look at last week’s comic for example!  I’m so used to my giant wacom cintiq screen that drawing on analog paper seems… odd.  So I guess that’s a tie.  Notes/sketches for paper, drawing for digital.

So what says you good public!  What areas of life have you seen digital overtake analog and what areas has digital just utterly failed?

 

UPDATE 7/27/2013:
Sorry folks, I’ve been out of it lately.  Allergies & work have worn me down this month.  Let’s not use the word “hiatus”, but I’m looking to get back into the drawing schedule early August.  I apologize again for the delays.  >(

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