Technology Does Not Replace Paper
Despite what people may believe, the purpose of technology isn’t necessarily to replace paper. Paper is still relevant and important in our modern high-tech world (and for all the right reasons).
There are many technological ways of making notes, but sometimes a moleskin and a pen is the quickest and preferred method of developing ideas. Having a physical copy of your ideas and workings (especially in design) is overlooked too often these days, but the simple fact is, they will last forever (assuming you don’t do your work in the bath) and it’s easier by far. Not to say that note taking applications are useless (as a minimalist, my preference is ‘Notational Velocity’).
I don’t believe that Apple iBooks is trying to replace physical books, no more so than iTunes replaced physical media. eBooks are simply a new method of consuming information, it is about freedom and choice. I will personally buy paper-books until it is impossible to do so. But the option to consume media on the go is nothing short of a great thing.
I do believe that technology will be favoured against paper, but the intention of technology is simply to make life easier. Paper is not dead and will not be dead any time soon.
That said, we all know that we have to stop printing emails and be a little environmentally conscious. Now we have a choice and it is much easier to consume information because of the choices offered to us. Not everyone wants a book and not everyone wants an Apple iPad (for example), but the more choice of consumption that is available, the more people the information reaches.
I love paper and I love technology, can’t we all just get along now?
Posted on Monday, April 5th, 2010 at 2:49 pm, filed under Culture, Technology. Follow any responses to this entry using the RSS 2.0 feed.
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