In 2025, technology is so intertwined with our lives that it is almost impossible to imagine life without it. We look at the virtually tech-less Amish communities of the USA and question why and, more importantly, how they live in such a way. For university students, the story is no different: recorded lectures, digital notes and, increasingly, generative AI dominate the modern learning experience. However, is it possible to do it another way? Can, and should, students attempt to limit the role that technology plays in their learning experience?
You would be hard pressed to find someone on a university campus who doesn’t own a laptop, iPad or tablet of some variation, upon which they complete the majority of their work. It’s easy to see why: more and more of university life is becoming digital. Our schedules, communication from tutors, university resources, exams and other vital parts of education are now provided to us in an online format. It makes sense that most students also write their essays and take their notes on their laptops. Some young people, however, are questioning whether this is really the manner in which they want to complete their education. The memory of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic–endless Google Meets and Zooms–still looms large in many people’s minds. These are generally not fond memories, especially when considering the subpar quality of learning many of us experienced in that time period. As a result, the ever-increasing role that our computers play in our learning can seem ominous and one that many want to escape.
What are some of the benefits of going tech-less? Well, for one, several studies such as this one published by Frontiers in 2024 have suggested that writing notes by hand is more effective than typing in terms of engaging the brain and actually taking in what is being said. It can be easy to sit in your 9 am lecture after a big night and mindlessly type down everything that comes out of your lecturer’s mouth, whereas handwriting requires you to actively think about what you want to remember. Similar evidence has also been found with regard to the benefits of reading from paper as opposed to a screen, with students showing higher levels of comprehension when reading a physical copy of a text.
Another obvious benefit for our attention-span deficient generation is the distancing of distractions available to us on our computers. If you aren’t writing your essay on a laptop, then it’s much more of an effort to open up BBC Sport or Zara and procrastinate for another ten minutes. There are a whole host of other theoretical benefits to switching to paper and pen for all of your work, whether it be forcing you to become a more organised person through ordering your many pages of notes, avoiding late-night melatonin-suppressing blue light or simply making the studying experience more aesthetic. Maybe we should all be aiming to live that rustic ‘dark academia’ life.
As nice as that all sounds, is a university life without tech actually practical in any way? No longer would the vast selection of online university resources be available to us anytime and anywhere, making last-minute research at 11 pm the night before a due date significantly harder. Submitting those assessments would also be a faff, as most professors now expect much of our work in digital form. And what of the ever-increasing numbers of online assessments? Would universities be willing to make exceptions for one or two students in an entire cohort? While the library computers are a potential solution to all of this, the convenience of being able to do everything on a laptop or iPad wherever and whenever you want would be difficult to sacrifice.
Access to AI would also suddenly be stripped away, a tool that more and more of us are using to bolster our studies. Surely, it would be unfair for you to be spending hours manually grinding through your work, while your fellow students have readings summarised and essays planned automatically in seconds. However, this ultimately depends upon your views of AI, as many students have expressed concerns about its efficacy, especially for any tasks that require more brain-power than menial ones like organising notes.
Ultimately, modern university life entirely without a personal device seems simply impractical. Although perhaps we could all benefit from phasing out technology in some aspects of our studies, whether it be experimenting with handwriting notes for a semester or finding physical copies of our readings in the library.