Our attention span is so broken that a thriving industry has emerged: “distraction-free” keyboards

In 2024, more than 90,000 books. It is estimated that in the United States the figure was much higher and reached three millionincluding self-published books. Those numbers make something very clear: the world has been filled with writers.

Those who write also do so in many ways. The traditional typewriter has practically disappeared to give way to the computer, and the versatility of this technological product has made the experience more personal than ever.

The blank page, but on the screen

Thus, while some write on the desktop computer, others do so on the laptop, but in that experience the details matter a lot, such as the type of keyboard used – with the popular mechanical keyboardsfor example—or, of course, the application that each one uses to write.

The famous case of George RR Martin with the mythical and very old WordStar It is almost anecdotal, because currently there are many much more modern rivals. Microsoft Word is the obvious choice, but rivals have tightened significantly in this sector. Thus, a huge number of applications and services designed for writers have appeared, such as Scrivener, Ulysses, iAWriter, Manuscripteither Ghostwriter.

In many cases, one of the focuses of these applications was not only to help the writer in areas such as the structure of the novel or the organization of the characters and plot. They also usually have a distraction-free mode, which usually manifests itself with the digital version of the blank sheet of paper: the interface is completely empty, without toolbars or menus. Just a cursor blinking and waiting for us.

Welcome to distraction-free keyboards

These software applications are also accompanied by some hardware devices specifically aimed at writers. They are a modern version of traditional typewriters: products designed entirely to do one thing and one thing only: write.

These “distraction-free keyboards“They usually integrate small screens on which the text we are writing is displayed, but there is nothing else we can do with them. They have internet connectivity, but only with the objective of being able to synchronize those texts with the cloud to save them. No web browsers, no social networks, no (supposedly) distractions. All of them try to create a “concentration bubble” so that whoever writes can focus exclusively on it.

The clear reference in this segment is Freewritefrom the company Astrohaus, which manufactures several models of keyboards without distractions with this proposal. In them we normally have:

• Internet connectivity
• Small flash memory but enough to store several manuscripts
• Internal battery
• Screen: usually e-ink, but also LCD

This electronic ink screen of various models makes it more comfortable to have long writing sessions and contributes to long-lasting battery life. The most notable alternative to FreeWrite machines is Pomeranianfrom the Japanese company King Jim, which has launched some of its models on crowdfunding platforms such as IndieGogo.

These are, however, devices with a high price for how specific they are. Here it is likely that the limited production batches make these products more expensive, but still its price/performance ratio is not remarkable. The Freewrite Traveler, for example, is priced at 602.95 euros in the official Freewrite store. Pomera’s recent rival – with an LCD screen – has an official price of $449, almost 400 euros. There are even ones with a much higher price, like the Ernest Hemingway, which has a price of $1,206.95.

At Xataka we have contacted three users of these devices: two of them English-speaking, and a young Spanish man. All of them have purchased and used at least one of these types of keyboards without distractions or a similar alternative, and they have been kind enough to share the experience with us.

Looking for a digital substitute for the notebook and pen

Ilia Epifanov, writer and editorhas published more than 30 works, including short stories, books and even comics. When he decided to buy one of these devices, he tells us, “I was looking for a compact machine that would allow me to write without distractions.” He discovered the Freewrite devices“but the price seemed high to me, and I was also looking for something more portable.

He ended up deciding on Nokia E7a smartphone launched in 2011 that had a physical keyboard that could be folded out under the case. “It’s small, well made and evokes nostalgia,” he commented, “although it certainly has its limitations.” He admits that he wouldn’t recommend it to most people, especially since the keyboard isn’t suitable for use for long periods of time.

But for this user, one of the keys to this old device is that it is old and most of its applications are useless today. That makes me approach it solely as a keyboard without distractions, because as he says “I love its simplicity: you unfold the keyboard and just type.”

Carl Dilkington —pseudonym that use on Reddit our second guest—is a freelancer who writes both professionally and as a hobby. He also began to look for alternatives to write without distractions, and started with the cheapest and least technological: a notebook and a pen.

He soon realized that this did not seem practical to him, and after searching for devices of this type he opted for the Freewrite Traveler, which he chose for its portability but which “if I’m honest, I chose it over others for aesthetic reasons. I just liked the way it looked, and I thought that if I was going to spend a good part of the day looking at it, I wanted to like its design.” These types of products “don’t work magic,” he confessed.

“You still need to force yourself to sit down and write, and that will always be a complex task. And that’s the real problem. We let computers distract us because we want to avoid the difficulty of writing. Eliminating those distractions doesn’t eliminate the desire to be distracted, and the world has plenty of additional sources of distraction that we can subject ourselves to.”

It is an important reflection, and reveals the reality of devices that certainly avoid the distractions of a laptop, but cannot fight against many other stimuli around us, the first of which is the mobile phone.

Even so, he confesses, it is “pleasurable” for him to write on the Freewrite Traveler, both visually and tactilely. The product, he noted, was practical: “I could take it with me everywhere, create an initial draft, and then easily transfer the text to my computer for editing.” However, his machine broke down less than a year after purchasing it, something that apparently is common among the users of this modelespecially due to the problems that they emerge with their keys.

That has caused Dilkington to state that he would not recommend this specific product to anyone. Although these types of devices are attractive, “I would recommend them only to people who have realistic expectations because It’s not going to magically solve your problems as a writer.“. But yes, it also admits that it frees you from the “unpleasant and harmful aspects of writing on a computer”:

“The glare of the screen, the countless distractions, the ease with which you can get caught up in endless desktop editing, and the psychological ramifications of being on the same device on which you send emails, do your taxes, read the news, argue with strangers, play games, watch Netflix, and God knows what else… As long as you also put away your phone, these devices eliminate all that, no more, no less.”

There is no perfect solution

Eduardo Robsy (@EduRobsy), economist and writer, is persistent. He has been looking for alternatives to a PC or laptop for writing for some time, and has tried everything. He started by trying to get used to using a smartphone and an external Bluetooth keyboard.

The problem, he confesses, is that the cell phone represents “a constant temptation,” even in the best of cases, to obtain documentation or verify some documentation. He also experimented with an Android device with an e-ink screen, a good compact mechanical keyboard, and the iA Writer app, but that didn’t convince him either. In both the sacrifices were too important.

He ended up looking for a specialized device and found a second-hand one. Alphasmart Neowith a small LCD screen that is not backlit and does not even work with a rechargeable battery, but with batteries. Its low consumption means that even with this option the autonomy is enormous, about 700 hours.

The product, launched about 15 years ago, has important limitations, and for example its small memory is not capable of storing more than 200 pages of text. It was not possible to configure the keyboard in Spanish, but it did not convince him. Things, yes, were improving.

His next step was to buy a King Jim Pomera DM-100 —discontinued by the manufacturer—, which had a backlit screen, was compact and comfortable but again imposed limitations, especially as it was a product initially designed for the Japanese market. The keyboard was not configurable either, although Robsy himself programmed a small web utility to convert texts and change, for example, the occurrences of “:a” with “á”. It still didn’t pay to use these products, which freed you from distractions but condemned you to other problems.

His latest acquisition has been the Freewrite Alphaone of the best-known machines in this area, somewhat more affordable than the Traveler. The keyboard, he confesses, “is quite noisy” and even putting silicone washers under the keys “the space bar is still thunderous.” But it is configurable, which allows you to use all the characters of a conventional Spanish keyboard.

It has other drawbacks, such as that it lacks function keys, or selection, copy and paste functions, and that means that, according to Robsy, “it only serves what Freewrite intended: typing a lot and quickly, without distractions, to get a first working draft, dirty, to edit later from a full computer.”

With the Freewrite Alpha you found a remarkable tool, but not perfect. As he explained, “it is still a good tool for doing what it was designed to do: write without looking back to produce, as soon as possible, a first draft of any text”.

After all this journey, for him the conclusion that can be applied to all these devices is clear: “none of them are perfect. They all excel in some aspect and show deficiencies in others.” In fact, he explains,

“The tool without distractions does not work because, no matter how good it is, no matter how well designed, it is our brain that is permeable to distraction. The important thing, at the end of the day, is to write. “Everything else is nothing more than excuses for not doing it, for not dedicating the time and energy it requires.”

Image | Freewrite

In Xataka | In Oslo there is a library where books are being written with one condition: that they not be read for 90 years.