The future of paper
From a recent discussion with a Korean friend:
Me: “So when do you read newspapers?”
Him: “When the plane is taking off or landing”
I always thought that computers would not replace paper. When I was working for big companies (and on a desktop computer), I used to print a digest in the morning for reading at the cafeteria. But now that I have a laptop, I must admit I read 99% of the time on my screen. Is paper dead?
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:43 pm
It’s not that it’s paper, it’s that it is declarative, non-interactive writing.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:02 am
Another probable casualty yes. But paper has a problem I think (trees: good news for you!)
September 5th, 2007 at 11:50 am
I don’t think paper will ever die. I still print stuff from my computer all the time in order to read it later. Bad news for trees but nice for me. Plus, paper never crashes or hangs up, you don’t have to reboot it, you can fold it up, it needs no batteries or electricity, and when you need it it’s “instantly on.”
Can you tell — I LOVE PAPER!!!!
September 5th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
But how many paper geeks is there in the generation after us? I love paper and will always need it directly and indirectly in a number of forms (ads, business cards, documents for clients and coworkers). But when I look at my days, I probably use one tenth of the paper I was using 5 years ago, and that’s because reading on my screen is not as painful as it was with old screens, and because my mother now knows how to use emails and isn’t an island of paper postcard anymore but a subscriber to my flickr account.