The 21st century has opened the door for the digitalization of everything. Books have been made digital; art is digital; essentially anything and everything can be made into an electronic version. Animation itself has also moved away from pencil drawings to computer-based. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this. In fact, I'm sure it says something about how advanced our society has become. And yet, I cannot help feel a certain sense of nostalgia when I see so many of the things take on a certain intangible essence. I cannot pass my fingers along the edges of a digital book - nor is there the smell of books I so dearly love. And, in my opinion, so many of today's experiences have an air of artificiality. Nothing is organic anymore. And neither is the encounter.
Being an engineering student, I don't completely disagree with the path we as a society have taken. However, there are certain things that I would like to preserve and return to time after time. Note-taking and journaling is one such example. I tried several times to take notes during lectures on my iPad, and each time I returned to my Apica notebooks. The same goes for journals. And the Moleskine journals have such an exquisite feel to both the pages and their covers. Yes, they are a bit more expensive. But I have come to understand that at times, when we choose cheap options, we often sacrifice not only quality, but also the experience.