Pens, in one form or another, have been used to write since 3200 BC, and throughout that time, one thing has remained the same: the inconvenience. From bamboo reeds to swan feathers to fountain pens, pens have mainly used permanent ink which may be good for legal documents, grading, and other important papers due to their permanence, but they cannot escape their inconvenience.
That is why, for everyday practicality, nothing beats a simple pencil.
According to Andrew Wilson of Executive Pens Direct, pens were first used in the form of bamboo reeds to carve and eventually evolved into the reed styli when used with ink. Then, quills made from goose or swan feathers became a cheaper and more available option, contributing to the endangerment of those birds until 1884, when Lewis Waterman started mass production of fountain pens. Years later, in October of 1945, the first ballpoint pens were sold by Gimbels department store in New York City. While erasable pens were released by Paper Mate in 1979 using liquid rubber cement as ink, they only gained popularity for a short time since they were only erasable for about ten hours and smudged easily.
Of course, due to technology, especially phones and computers, pen use has subsided. Despite this decline in pen usage today compared to the 1950s and ’60s, pens still negatively impact our world. As written by Earth911, “Americans toss 1.6 billion disposable pens annually. These plastic pens end up in landfills and as litter. Some of this plastic waste reaches our waterways, breaking down into microplastics, polluting our water, and harming ocean life.”
While pens became popular and remain widely used, pencils predate them and are far more practical and better for the world. As written by Pencils.com, pencils started as graphite sticks wrapped in string. Later, graphite was inserted into hollowed-out wood to form wood-encased pencils. Pencils.com adds that since the 1890’s, some wood-encased pencils were painted yellow to signify that they came from China since that was where the best graphite came from.
Humans are prone to making mistakes, so it should be easy to erase them. While erasable pens exist, they have not been perfected. Ultimately, only pencils allow you to truly correct your mistakes. Pencils can erase the mistakes you make in your work and allow you to try again because everyone deserves another chance.
