Hey kids! Do you know what this is? It’s called a Rolodex! It’s what we used for decades before the digital age to keep track of our contacts. They were invaluable! Sometimes I would even flip through my Rolodex just to spark some inspiration. It was a tactile, active experience.
No mater how convenient and easy digital is, we can’t have a relationship with digital information the way that we can with a physical repository of information.
That’s why I continue to move away from digital systems in favor of analog. I have reinvested in paper, pens, journals, notebooks, dictionaries, and yes, I do see the purchase of a new Rolodex in my future. I love being able to flip through pages and find little gems that I totally forgot about. Searching for something digitally will not likely produce anything other than the desired result. But what about unexpected results? I love to land on a page that is totally different from the one I set out to find. There’s just something magical about that organic process.
What about you? Are you more digital or analog? And do you now, or have you ever owned a Rolodex?