Paper vs. Digital: The Battle for Notetaking Supremacy

In an era where pirated online textbooks replace traditional ones and SMART boards overtake chalkboards, the age-old question persists: What is the superior method of note-taking? Hopkins students remain divided on this issue, with some defending the classic paper-and-pen experience and others arguing that digital notes are better.

In a poll of 50 students, some 67% said that most Hopkins students would rather jot down their notes in a notebook or spare sheet of paper than type them digitally. Most believe that in addition to offering organizational advantages, paper notes are also practical when memorizing a hefty amount of material — a trait especially useful for procrastinators doing some last-minute cramming. According to Aerin O’Brien ’26, “Studies have shown that writing something down is like reading it seven times.” Zachary Cohen ’29 echoes this idea: “When you write down what is on the board or what is being dictated to you, you retain the information better than you would if you took down notes on a screen.” For Nia McKeithen ’26, an important benefit of taking paper notes is that they “can be physically organized” and are “simpler to do during class. Nathan Dai ’27 adds that paper notes are especially convenient “when you need to draw a graph.” 

The traditional paper note-taking method is not without faults, however. As Julius Cafiso ’27 puts it, “It makes your hand hurty.” Apart from the obvious limitations of the human hand’s stamina, McKeithen says that “if you write too fast, it’s difficult to read your handwriting afterwards when reviewing” and, in general, “writing takes longer than typing.” Elyssa Power ’28 sometimes encounters a similar issue: “[There] is too much to write and not enough time.” For Rijul Mukherjee ’24, an important drawback to paper is that, as physical media, it’s “easier to lose your notes or ruin them if they get damaged.” Additionally, he says that classes can “require a lot” of paper.

On the opposite side of the debate stands the 32.6% of students that prefer digital notes. Gemma Iaccarino ’26 says that “it’s much faster taking notes digitally and you can get much more information down.” Aaliya Panyadahundi ’28 says, “Misspelled words can autocorrect and you can shrink and enlarge [the] font to take up more or less space.” For Karun Srihari ’25, “the biggest [advantage] is organization” as well, though he says that “not needing notebooks has reduced the weight of my backpack significantly too.” 

Supporters of digital notes also stress their downline benefits. In terms of collaboration, Julia Van Der Aue ’26 says that notes taken online are the most beneficial, as “you can make notes documents shared with friends so multiple people can add their thoughts.” O’Brien mentions, arguably, a greater advantage of digital notes: They are “better for the environment.”

The Hopkins community also finds many downsides to taking notes on a computer or tablet. Willa Kennedy ’29 points out that “you can’t doodle.” Although all students reach the part of the day when the urge to zone out takes over, Jemma Grauer ’28 notes that teachers can get the wrong impression regardless of whether or not a student is goofing off. Grauer says that when you’re taking notes on a computer, “teachers may think you are playing games and not being attentive to class.” Returning to the topic of retention, Iaccarino says that one can quickly type up notes “without actually having to interpret and redistribute the information,” meaning they aren’t able to remember information as well.

Whatever the poll’s results, taking notes can be a personalized experience that doesn’t fall into either the paper or digital category. Iaccarino says, “I prefer paper notes for math or science, when there’s no easy formatting for online notes and when you often are including graphs or drawings. But I prefer digital notes for history classes, when most often a lot of words are being thrown at you very quickly and you want to be able to write it all down quickly.” While teachers may have and enforce their own preferences, Susie Becker ’28 says, “I think that it’s really a matter of personal preference, and teachers shouldn’t force students to take notes one way or the other.”