Notetaking in everyday life
People have been recording information they want to remember or to be remembered for tens of thousands of years. From the earliest cave paintings that preserved important images to hieroglyphics written in ancient Egypt to shopping lists scribbled on scraps of paper to notes taken on computers in classrooms, all forms of notetaking have served to provide reminders and stimulate recall of events, tasks, and various other types of information. These days, notes play an often-underappreciated role in several aspects of daily life, in personal, professional, and academic spheres.
Once a person can accomplish basic drawing skills, they begin to communicate messages via “notes,” as even when a young child draws a squiggly picture and says it shows their mommy and daddy, they are in a sense creating a note: an item that they created to remind them of or to demonstrate something; in this case, their family. As children transition to the school years, they learn to write, and thus “notes” often become a combination of visual images and written words. Upon reaching junior high school, students are exposed to more written information, and their notes, at least for school, typically begin to contain more and more words.
In high school, class content and ideas become more sophisticated and students are often held accountable for information presented in class by the teacher; thus, their notes become more high stakes, as taking and keeping a good set of notes can lead to academic success. From there, students in many countries enter higher education (e.g., community college or university), where they often must rely on their notetaking abilities to cope with the increased information loads that their teachers expect them to learn. Other young people may enter the workforce, where taking notes also plays an important role in preserving information in order to accomplish tasks (i.e., a restaurant server taking orders or a carpenter building a bookshelf to certain specifications).
At home, notes are always useful ways of keeping family members informed (“Just ran to the store to buy milk. Home soon. XO, Mom”) and to remind others and/or yourself (“Charge phone before work!”). Generally speaking, people used to rely on these types of notes written on pieces of paper, but with email and text messaging, much information can be sent directly to individuals.
