Quick warning: this essay mentioned eating disorders. If this is something you’re not comfortable with, feel free to skip this post. Stay safe.
Ironically, my evocative object was heavily used to create this. And many other things, because I organize my whole academic life with my notion. Not to be that person, but I love it.
If a course isn’t on Canvas before the term begins, I can get frustrated: it means I can’t prepare for school in advance by adding all the deadlines into my notion, writing out grade components into each classes’ page, can’t break each assignment down and plan my workload before the first class. For MDIA 300, I wrote out not only the major and minor assignments and what each entails, but also what page of syllabus it is on, and I am very grateful to my past self for that. Notion helps me know what to do on any given day, if I’m lucky to find a good spot in either of the libraries.
That is not, however, to say that my notion has any power over me: I am free to ignore my own study plans if I feel so inclined. Notion simply evokes the feeling of control over my student life, gives me structure and simplifies the search for much needed information.
Affordances
In my personal case, the digital aspect of it has affordances that physical notebooks lack: mainly, accessibility, larger creative control and digital media opportunities (try putting in a hyper-link or a gif into a physical notebook). I also prefer typing out my notes and editing later over writing them down with a pen with no space for mistake. Being able to easily share my notes and copy and paste in-class assignments is also a huge boost for digital over physical copies.
On the other hand, I’m aware that a large company holds control over my app for studying, and has the power to take it away. Which it did, actually: Notion is no longer available in Russia, so I was unable to see my notes or add my new subjects into my calendar when I was home. Which, obviously, is not that big of a problem.
Digital brain
Evocative objects are “things we think with”, according to Turkle, and that is exactly the function my Notion fills in. In her chapter about a long-lost datebook, Michelle Hlubinka describes her evocative object as “an external information organ—a piece of my brain made out of paper instead of cells”. Similarly, in her chapter on her own laptop, Annalee Newitz writes:
“It’s practically a brain prosthesis. Sometimes I find myself unable to complete a thought without cracking it open and accessing a file of old notes, or hopping online and Googling a fact or two”
And both of these are truly remarkable, mostly because I believe most of us relate to this sentiment. In the digital age with technology being so wide-spread, most of us delegate our knowledge and memories to a laptop, a phone, or a memory stick. So many of my friends (and me, too), when having trouble remembering the last week or our summer, pull out a phone and go through the gallery to see which moments come in which order.
This is what I am likely to do if you ask me about the syllabus: I’ll go to Notion, because I filtered out what I need to know from Canvas and put it in there. Wrote it down and, well, immediately forgot.
Mediation of memory
Bernard Stiegler wrote a rather gloomy and dystopian chapter on Memory, where he talks about the consequences of delegating knowledge and memories to an external source. While I agree with him about the dangers of information manipulation and the act of remembering for yourself as the “true form of knowing”, I am glad (or blind) to say my situation is not as dramatic when it comes to consequences and explications. The information isn’t being manipulated in my case: professors just change syllabus and move deadlines sometimes.
But let’s go back to Hlubinka’s chapter on databooks. She describes losing her databook as a small-scale tragedy:
“I felt as though I had lost my life. My memory of all I did and planned to do from January to May 2003 vanished, along with the physical form that contained it.”
If I were to be locked out of my Notion and all the professors were to delete their syllabi at the same time, I would be very confused but also unable to retrieve all the important dates, all my notes, and all my study plans at once. Our understanding of what we wrote down will forever be tied to the object holding these memories: it’s a memory stick that, if lost, won’t be remade. While it is liberating to get some weights off our hard-working brains, we should keep one thing in mind: once we delegate the memory, it will be outside of our control.
Mediation of control
I see myself a lot in how Hlubinka describes her friend Ginger and the way she manages her own databook. Ginger colourcodes her plans (check!), leaves herself extra time so as to not be late (check!) and says her need for control is rooted in her now recovered eating disorder (check!).
For us, documenting, planning, colourcoding is a way to structure the way we see our lives, understand our weeks clearer and, therefore, control it. In the modern days more than ever, our lives are filled with chaos, days are filled with events, weeks filled with plans. How do you stay on top of things the way we’re expected to? We simplify it: this day is for writing comments on blog posts and reading two more chapters, tomorrow we will worry about source traceback, and the day after that Ingold’s Making will be due in the library, so I’ll need to re-check it. The world seems more approachable when it’s simplified and, therefore, controlled. And then we give ourselves a pet on the back for doing what we should: Ginger uses stickers, I get to see my calendar turn green from all the completed assignments.
Lastly, both Ginger and I simply like our objects of structure. She says: “my audience is myself . . . a lot of these devices are to make me happy“. Me too, Ginger! I spend hours on end picking pretty covers for each subject, finding pretty gifs, assigning symbols. And while I don’t mind people looking over and noticing how cool my Notion is, it is for me only.
Mediation of self
Hlubinka describes her lost databook as a reflection of what kind of person she was: what caught her interest, what events she considered or attended, what conversations she had and what topics she found worthy of writing down. She says “I like to think that anyone could open up my lost paper datebook and see what kind of person I am”.
While databooks and notion study calendars are purely personal, we as humans cannot stand to not mark things as our own, not shape them to be ours. There is so much personality in how we structure our books and notions just because it will so heavily depend on how we see this world. In a way, it is a two-way communication: we input our view of the world into the databook which reflects this view back at us, shaping it further. Ginger tracks her life by weeks, I break down a term into months, because this is how we live our lives.
Control, calendars, due-dates
To sum it all up: the way we plan our lives is a powerful mediator of control, memory and self. It allows us to simplify our life and therefore understand it better, and while storing all the most important memories on one Google Drive is not recommended, digital planner allows us to take some weight off our brains when it comes to planning ahead and remembering dates.
Hlubinka, Michelle. “THE DATEBOOK.” In Evocative Objects: Things We Think With, edited by Sherry Turkle, 76–85. The MIT Press, 2007. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hhg8p.13.
Newitz, Annalee. “MY LAPTOP.” In Evocative Objects: Things We Think With, edited by Sherry Turkle, 86–91. The MIT Press, 2007. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hhg8p.14.
Stiegler, Bernard. “MEMORY.” In Critical terms for media studies, edited by W. J. T. Mitchell & M. B. N. Hansen, 64-87. University of Chicago, 2005.
Header and post by Bara Bogantseva
I really enjoyed your post! It was so honest and intimate, but actually very thoughtful. I totally get what you said about using Notion for control and reassurance. I’m the same, having everything sorted out makes me feel peaceful even if I don’t always follow my own agenda. It’s interesting how tools like Notion or Google Calendar become incorporated into how we think and remember. What you’ve described about outsourcing memory struck me particularly. I also rely on notes and reminders so heavily that my brain doesn’t actually retain anything, just where everything’s kept. It’s freeing but kind of scary, too. And I loved your remark on personalization. I do the same thing for icons and color-coding, and it’s not just about being productive, it’s who we are. Your post put a reminder into my head that structure can be a reflection of the individual you are.
Yes, writing this post and reflecting on our structuring tools made me want to rely more on my own memory as opposed to outsourcing it, although at first that will mean constantly forgetting stuff.
You’re right that our mind is now more filled with where things are written down, not what those things are – it’s a valuable concept I wish I included in this post.
What a beautiful reflection! As an avid notion user myself, I find this both relatable and eye-opening. I was struck by your link to Turkle’s idea of evocative objects as “things we think with”. I see how your Notion goes beyond just being an app into a tool/reference and maybe even a companion if I may so so? What’s fascinating is how this connects to Andy Clark and David Chalmers’ Extended Mind thesis (1998), which argues that our tools can become literal extensions of our thinking systems when they are reliably integrated into how we process the world (and this was 1998, we have grown so much technologically since). I see in your case how Notion becomes the scaffolding for your academic identity as it mediates memory/planning AND also emotion, control and self expression.
I also appreciated your awareness of dependency and fragility. This idea that control over one’s digital brain can be revoked (as in your Russia example) points to how even our sense of agency is is insfrastructurally mediated. The juxtaposition between empowerment and vulnerability also echoes Stiegler’s warning “about technics as pharmakon” (both poison and cure).
I’m trying to become more aware of my technology usage across the board– how I consume content, how others consume content I create, where my digital footprint leads me. Your essay is encouraging me to be more reflective of cultivating a relationship with my technological protheses and knowing when they serve me vs. me serving them.
I appreciate such a deep reflection on my post ????
I haven’t read Extended Mind yet, although it sounds right up the alley for this post: thanks for bringing it to my attention. It sounds similar to what Newitz writes about, too, calling her laptop a brain prosthesis.
One thing I didn’t touch on in this post that relates to the dependency on technology is how COVID-19 pandemic heavily increased it, and I wonder how differently our relationships with technology would’ve developed otherwise. This wasn’t relevant to my blog post, but surely is an interesting thing to discuss in relation to it. And, yes, since 2020, we have also experience the rise in our own technological vulnerability in general.
Hi Bara!
Great post! I completely resonate with your blog! I use my Google Calendar as a visualizer and organizer of my life’s schedule! Once I put something on my calendar I am free to clear it from my mental space. Using this tool feels like an external storage for my thoughts, however when you state that “once we delegate our thoughts, they are out of our control.” I found my self dumbfounded. I have given the control and direction of my life to a digital technology. In my own blog post, I used the concept of the “brain prosthesis” as well, however I used the concept to describe how AirPods are a medium for my perceptions of the world. In contrast, your blog post uses a brain prosthesis to lessen some perceptions of your life and transfer them to digital means. Ultimately, both your post and mine establish digital technologies as a means of controlling our perceptions. I wonder, because of the acute growth of distracting digital interfaces, if we stopped using our digital tools of organization, how would we navigate the labyrinth of digital communication that the older generations have never faced. For example, there are not concentrations of news sources, information is being spread everywhere. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Great job!
Thanks Bridghet!
Yes, the idea of brain prosthesis is very relevant right now, mostly because, as you correctly mentioned, there is a chaotic amount of information we process every day. We use our tools because otherwise, we’re screwed.
While it is impossible (and not quite necessary, in my opinion) to give up on these technologies entirely, we have an option to be mindful in what and how we use. For example, I mostly use a paper calendar for big dates like birthdays or exams, and Maryam has a brilliant piece on printed photographs as an alternative way of storing more sentimental memories.
It is cheesy and it is cheeky, but the answer will always be in balance and mindfulness.
Hello Bara,
Really enjoyed reading about your evocative object. I found it refreshing that your object was Notion, a digital platform, when everyone I knew (including myself) went with physically tangible ones, so bravo! I think most of us reading can find themselves resonating with this, being university students, so it was nice that you wrote this piece personal to you yet relatable for many. The word “dependency” comes up a lot on this page but it really does encompass our relationship with technology these days. Our lives are basically dependent on planners like Notion or Google Calendar. We dump it all in one place and then, like you wrote, forget about it. I find that really fascinating through a cognitive lens. Is technology enabling our problems with memory loss?
You bring up an important question! Thinking of it, I remembered a study on London cab drivers’ and bus drivers’ MRI, which showed that cab drivers, who work with the entire city as opposed to a limited bus route, developed more spatial knowledge. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17024677) While not entirely on the same topic, I think it’s a great example how actually using our brains will help them develop and stay intact.
And while I don’t see pure evil in having digital notes, the question becomes: if we’re freeing up the space in our brains, what will it be used for? Maybe we should all solve a couple of sudokus once in a while. Reclaiming attention span and “unrotting” my brain is something I am very curious about, so if you have anything on the topic, send it my way!
Hi Bara, I really enjoyed your blog post! I relate to it a lot as I also use Notion to organize my schoolwork. I liked your point on how such organizational tools and the customization that they afford us make them highly personal items – ones that a stranger could look through and learn a lot about us. Not only do the classes and events that I attend speak to my interests, it’s also the way that I decide to organize and colour-code everything that shows how I see the world.
Although I was somewhat aware of it beforehand, your reflection made me realize just how reliant I am on Notion to structure my schoolwork to such an extent that I would be lost without it. You said, “once we delegate the memory, it will be outside of our control” and this really spoke to me. This made me start drawing comparisons between a physical planner, like Hlubinka’s datebook, with digital tools like Notion, and how they connect to memory. Although I use physical planners less, I find that the act of writing something down engages my brain more and helps me remember information better. It seems that while digital tools are desirable due to their accessibility and capabilities, their ease of use also makes them less cognitively engaging and makes us forget things easier.
You’re so right in your reflection on the comparison of digital and material notebooks and structuring tools! Our brains do tend to be more engaged when writing on paper, and we usually remember things written down more clearly.
That’s why I personally prefer to journal in a physical notebook: physical connection makes it easier for me to get emotions on the paper and look within myself better, while my laptop is filled with distractions that I would rather not have.
Wow, this was so relatable and beautifully written. Bara! : ) I really appreciate the vulnerability and clarity you brought to this reflection. The way you connected Notion to memory, control, and self really made me think about my own habits and tools.
One quote that especially stayed with me was: “The world seems more approachable when it’s simplified and, therefore, controlled.” This is so true.
My version of Notion is definitely more old-school: sticky notes. Like, actual, colourful sticky notes layered across my desk, laptop, wall, and sometimes even my mirror. Each course has its own colour, and I write every single task by hand. That moment when I get to peel one off and throw it away after finishing an assignment? It’s honestly the most satisfying feeling, like a small act of reclaiming time and control.
Your point about memory mediation also made me pause. I never thought about how dependent I’ve become on my phone’s camera roll or digital planners to recall where my time went. It’s kind of scary how easy it is to forget once something is “saved” somewhere else.
Also, the link you drew between planning and identity was so insightful. I’ve never consciously thought about how my system of sticky notes and checklists is actually a reflection of how I see the world. Like Ginger, I leave buffer time and colour-code everything (for functionality) but also for peace of mind, and maybe as a way to feel “seen” by myself.
Thanks again for this piece! It made me realize that planning is actually so emotional, personal, and oddly creative. It really is an extension of ourselves. Do you think we ever fully “know” ourselves through these systems or are we constantly reshaping that sense of self as our tools evolve?
Thank you for your comment Maryam!
I love sticky notes, too, though I use them for every-day reminders (i.e. for my ‘civil’ life). I personally can feel overwhelmed by their abundance: has this ever happened to you?
The link between our worldview and the way we plan is quite thin, since it connects our planning with a very deep level of world and time understanding: it lies deeper in us than, say, political views. I’m glad we got to reflect on that! Another question I love to ask people is how do you visualize a year in mind? When thinking several months before, do you see a square calendar flipping, or a line going forward, or a circle spinning? This is a more literal way of discussing time view, but an interesting one nonetheless!
In response to your question: I don’t know if we ever fully “know” ourselves at all, to be completely honest. Those things, as I said earlier, lay deep in our brains, and not many people get to reflect on that, as well as its connection to identity. Tools evolve, I believe, when and if they need to: if tomorrow I’ll decide to switch to sticky notes system and it will stick (pun intended), it will have been because it fits me and the way I’m wired a little better than notion did. I believe tools that work for us do so because there is something they are responding to within us, and they more so bring up the already existing senses rather than change previous ones.
Hi Bara! Great post, I like that you chose something that probably gets taken for granted quite a lot (at least I do). As students, a solid chunk of our lives revolves around our notes and assignments but they often become such stress-inducing ‘things to do’ that we forget that they eventually become ‘things we’ve done’. Our assignments don’t cease to exist simply because we’re done with them, and neither do our notes. I find your analysis of your ‘digital databook’ really interesting in this context. Your Notion is all at once a record of the past, a reminder of the present, and an indicator of the future!
I also found your discussion of memory in this context really interesting, particularly how, in recording our memories, we delegate them to things outside our own control. The tension you highlighted between Notion, a platform that is used to organize our thoughts and memory, and the sacrifice of agency over our memories that occurs when we delegate them to Notion is something that is becoming more relevant as digital media becomes more and more pervasive. Digital media adds a layer of nuance to these ideas. Notion now has control over your memories and the platform does not physically exist (as opposed to a physical databook that is fully owned, operated, and lost by you).
Molly, I love your comment so much! The idea of to-do’s turning into done’s is exactly what I need to adopt into my thinking processes: while I can see my past to-do’s on a Notion calendar, I don’t pay much attention to them anymore. It’s the Zeigarnik Effect: unfinished or interrupted tasks are easier for us to remember than what has already been done. So thank you for a reminder of a brighter outlook on my studies!
And, yes, the topic of memory is so prevalent when discussing things like Notion or social media, but, as I mentioned in another comment here, it is so needed right now, because the information flow is absolutely unthought of, if compared to some hundred years ago. To keep in mind everything we need today we need support of external memory, but should, of course, be mindful of what we want to keep to our own brains.