Here’s the original 2005 Mission Statement for Paper Notes:
Paper Notes In A Digital World? Absolutely. I still believe in pens, pencils, notebooks, journals, daily planners, letter writing, thank-you cards, and all things that celebrate a life that respects the placing of words on paper. Though, obviously, the words you are now reading are not on paper, they are definitely on paper – in spirit. In an age of blogs (like this one), blogs about blogs, online publications of all kinds and everything digital, I still celebrate the journal kept in a notebook, bound books, magazines, a good newspaper and the literary world of old. I love to read about writing and writers. I’d rather read an interview with Somerset Maugham or Michael Connelly than the gurus of the computer age. Why? I think my full-plunge into computing in the late eighties has worn me down. I feel disconnected in the most connected age of all. I turn to the digital to celebrate and promote the analog in hopes of helping myself, and others, strike a healthy balance. I am tired of the digital information glut that leaves my mind spinning with so much information that I am unable to process it, leaving me with infinite sources of information, but feeling less focused – and, in the long run – less informed. So, why discuss all of this in the digital world on a blog? Because we can. Because there’s no turning back from digital, but we can learn to better balance our lives – and this is my contribution. Welcome to Paper Notes In A Digital World. A place where we will discuss all things paper, a place to consider the analog/digital balance. A place to slow down.
– Mike Swickey
