In a study published by a Princeton University’s Pam A. Mueller and University of California’s Daniel M. Oppenheimer, which sought to examine how note-taking by laptop or by hand affects learning.

They categorized the note-taking into two ways: generative and non-generative. While non-generative note-taking includes copying things verbatim, generative note-taking relates to summarizing, paraphrasing and concept mapping. While the former is termed as the external-storage hypothesis, which says that students learn by being able to look back at their notes, or even the notes of other people. The latter is called encoding hypothesis, which says that when students take notes, the phenomenon that takes place improves learning and retention.

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After testing how well the students remembered information, the Muller and Oppenheimer found a key point of deviation in the type of questions. For questions that asked students to simply remember facts and dates, both groups did equally well. But for conceptual-application questions, such as, “How do Japan and Sweden differ in their approaches to equality within their societies?” the laptop users did significantly worse, the researchers told National Public Radio.

Not only that, study shows that note-taking through laptops, phones and tablets have a distracting tendency, which includes clicking over to Facebook, or WhatsApp in a dull lecture. Also, other studies have shown that the fact that you have to be slower when you take notes by hand is what makes it more useful in the long run.