Here is an interesting bit of research. Kevin Purdy reports in, The Pen Is Mightier Than The Phone: A Case For Writing Things Out, that “a Forrester Research survey of business professionals found that 87 percent of them supplement gadgets with paper productivity, and 47 percent thought their personal and company efficiency would improve with better note-taking.” Now I have always valued writing things down. That is why I have posting on this blog daily since May 2004. While much of my blog writing remains electronic, I also use paper a lot. I still do paper to-lists. I prefer to read paper books. While I blog events on my laptop, I take interview notes on paper.
I am a very visual person and also draw and paint so I am attracted to the feel of working with paper. The article another good point as Kevin wrote that, “The role of paper is “changing from information recording and archiving, to a more temporary role of containing transient information,” says Jenny Englert, senior cognitive engineer at Xerox, in summarizing some of the research her firm is doing on the future of work.” I find this also. When I take interview notes on paper, I transfer them to electronic form for both distribution and storage and do not keep the paper. Of course, I am careful to recycle the paper. There is also something to stroke over a completed task on my paper to do list. When it has many crossovers than undone task I usually throw it into the recycle bin and start another.
I am not sure there is a systematic reason for me to choose paper over electronic. Now electronics are required for distribution. However, I used to keep paper calendar and saved them every year. Now my calendar is electronic and I do not tend to go back in time any more. In same ways paper was better since I always had the calendar with me. Now I have to wait to confirm appointments to get back to my laptop. Of course, I should just use the calendar on my iPhone since it is usually with me. The smart phone may replace a number of paper-based tasks but it will be less likely to replace paper note taking.
Some one should do a systematic study of paper versus electronics. Every communication medium has it strengths and limitations. The cuneiform of Sumer and Akkad used a wooden stylus on wet clay. The tablets were then baked. While lasting for millennia with no degradation, they were not very portable, and transportation was difficult. Pieces of pottery were also widely used for letters, accounts, and even homework, but they were not much good for lengthy texts.
It was not until the development of papyrus that real literary and academic works could easily be recorded and transported. This technology was used by the Greeks and Romans from the 5th century BC until the 8th or 9th century AD. It was superseded by parchment beginning in the 4th century AD. Both of these new media were easier to store and transport than the clay tablets but they were also more susceptible to the fire of invading armies. Now we have lost hard drives, the need for electric power, and often the need for connectivity to the Web.
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