My first instinct is that handwriting articles require the writer to access a deeper part of their soul. Typing is faster and can, in an LLM-esque way, help clarify thought sand instinctive feelings in a way writing is just too slow for. It has proven quite useful when I am really feeling a certain kind of strong feeling and I just want to draw it all out. The Most Dangerous Writing App is particularly good at drawing out my feelings and instinctive thoughts and forcing me to keep going until I feel “empty” in a sense. My feeling at the end of a typing session is a welcome kind of drained, where I feel somewhat tired but whatever emotions are swirling inside me do not bother me anymore because they are gone.

Writing also does that but it feels like it has a higher bar to entry? I do feel less likely to write on a whim than type, but maybe that’s just conditioning from being used to typing on a computer. Writing also takes me a little while to really get in the zone for writing. But the thing with my journal is that I do think it induces a deeper level of thought in a sense. I’m still just writing whatever comes to mind automatically but I think that whatever words are coming out subconsciously have a little more thought put into them. I also experience a certain kind of exhaling - where it feels like some kinds of physical knots or tensions inside my body are loosening - when writing. There might be something fundamentally freeing about getting thoughts outside my head onto paper.

I also think that the absence of a computer and the increased exertion it takes to write result in a deeper focus on the topic being written about. I didn’t even think of this pargraph until I finished the last one truthfully. The fact that other sites are not two button presses away and basically my entire field of view is my journal subconsciously makes me dedicate more of my brain to the thing I’m writing about. There’s a whole discourse to be had about analog and digital means for things/tasks which I’ll get to later but not here.

One other advantage of typing is that it is more ephemeral. Writing can be if you have access to a shredder or feel good/comforatble about your recycling disposal but I have roommates. They almost certainly would never go through my crumpled up papers but it still doesn’t compare to being able to type away in a .txt file and delete it when you’re done. The Most Dangerous Writing App also (to my knowledge) does not store logs so it does help me feel like there are no consequences to anything I may put out there. It’s something I also appreciate about ChatGPT, having that incognito mode. Even though it’s partially irrational there is a certian sense of security in knowing once you’ve got your thoughts sorted out you can instantly destroy the artifact and there is no consequence that can come of it later.

I handwrote this entire article in my journal first in one go and then transcribed it verbatim into this Notion blog without any edits.