My sister casually asked me what the oldest note on my phone was, like she was sharing a juicy tidbit. She’d started a habit she called ‘notes app digest’ – going back and rereading old notes as if they were a personal collection of thoughts and random ideas.
I quickly started scrolling through my notes. It’s a bit messy, overly detailed, and full of memories – basically a digital reflection of how my brain works! I still rely on paper to-do lists for staying organized, but my notes app is where I save everything: random thoughts (like a note that just says “possum”), important dates like birthdays, and all sorts of other things.
My notes are always a chaotic jumble, impossible to organize or even make sense of. Looking back through them isn’t just about finding lost information like passwords or remembering silly things we wrote – it’s like finding little pieces of our past, reminders of who we were and where we’ve been. In a world obsessed with efficiency, notes remain surprisingly meaningful.
People have long noticed how messy and honest notes apps are, especially compared to the polished content on social media. As Charley Locke pointed out in The Atlantic in 2024, these apps are like digital scratch paper, showing what we’re really thinking. In 2025, Elahe Izadi of The Washington Post even asked people to share what was inside their notes apps, creating a surprisingly personal and revealing glimpse into their thoughts.
Dr. Bart Wojdynski, a journalism professor at the University of Georgia, explains that people continue to use simple notes apps for a few key reasons. They’re easy to use, and the app’s icon reminds us of quickly writing on a sticky note. Wojdynski also suggests that the basic nature of these apps might make users feel like their information is less likely to be tracked and used for targeted advertising – though he admits he hasn’t recently checked the user agreement. He believes this preference is also connected to people wanting to create digital backups of their memories.
Andy Carr, a 37-year-old PhD student and part-time instructor in New York, recently discovered more than just grocery lists and lesson plans while reviewing old notes. He unearthed reminders from the summer of 2020, when he, his brother, and sister-in-law were caring for his dying mother. Among the various notes – including contact information from hospice nurses – was a surprisingly emotional one: “Skippy pb jingle—send writer to prison.” This was a frustrated reaction to a peanut butter commercial that played constantly on TV while the family focused on making his mother comfortable and providing care.
When Carr looked back at his notes, they reassured him. He’d long felt stuck and unable to react when his mother died, but the notes proved he was actively involved and present during that difficult time. They detailed everything he remembered and recorded, ensuring important details weren’t missed. He explained that he usually doesn’t revisit old messages or notes, but finding these was a welcome surprise. “Little things like this really make me grateful that I keep them,” he said.
Nadia De Ala, age 37, is a leadership coach who relocated to Mexico from the Bay Area two years ago. She still has the very first note she saved in an app back in 2016 – a poem she wrote while feeling stressed about her old commute. “It’s like a time capsule for me,” Nadia explains, “it captures who I was at different points in my life.” She even finds it interesting to look back at things like grocery lists from the past.
As a movie buff, I’ve always felt like my phone is almost an extension of my brain! And it seems like science backs that up. Julia Soares, a psychology professor, puts it perfectly – our devices aren’t just distractions, they can actually help us remember things. She calls them ‘partners for helping us remember,’ and I totally get it. It’s like offloading some of the remembering work, freeing up my brain to enjoy the story!
People are increasingly saving meaningful digital items, like voicemails and emails,” she says. While these “digital scraps” aren’t always seen as valuable keepsakes, many people still choose to hold onto them because of their sentimental importance.
I was recently looking at a friend’s notes, and it was amazing! While my own notes are a bit chaotic, hers were beautifully organized – like walking through different rooms, each filled with helpful things. She had lists of positive moments, home maintenance checklists, and even a digital cookbook with videos of her mom’s recipes. We talked about how useful notes can be. My sister shared that she’d found old goals she’d forgotten about, and little details from daily life she’d saved for no particular reason. Others told us about their earliest notes too – apartment addresses, inspiring quotes from books, compliments they’d treasured, and even silly thoughts that became funnier over time.
It felt like flipping through time. I saw glimpses of my past self: me in 2017, carefully preserving a recording of my cat’s purr; me in 2019, preparing for my first book with interview questions; me in 2022, anxiously rewriting a text message after a breakup, trying to get my things back; and me in 2024, briefly obsessed with documenting every baking project.
Sifting through years of old notes, ideas, and memories feels overwhelming. It’s a chaotic collection of everything I used to be, and I could never bring myself to get rid of it.
2026-07-24 13:06