Paperless World?

[TinkerTracy]

Today I got an e-mail from my banking asking if I wanted to join paperless billing/statements. I read some of my books on an Amazon Kindle. I check online sources for the news.
Do you think that one day there will be no need for printed materials anymore?
I'm not saying getting rid of ancient texts or things like that, but do you think that one day everything will become electronic?
Thoughts?

 

[Axel]

I think it might, with a few exceptions. I mean, legal documents and stuff will probably stay paper and I think books will still be published, but letters and transactions (like banking) I think are definitely going to go paperless some day. Even presentations are mostly 100% paperless these days. Most of my school work is submitted via e-mail. Most of my family's bills and my college bills are all online now.

There are certain things (like books) that are traditionally in paper. I mean, to me part of the reading experience is holding a book, smelling that paper smell, watching the pages get folded and torn because you love it so much.

 

[TinkerTracy]

Yeah my mom and I had this conversation the other day.
There are some books that I just want to own and have them not be on my Kindle. I love how books feel and smell and how they look when there's tons of them on a bookshelf. So I'm not sure if I could ever read just on the Kindle (although I love how convenient it is, and it doesn't feel like you're reading on a machine, I love my Kindle!)
But I think in the very near future almost all banking and newspapers and things like that will be done online. I think that's great because it saves the environment and stuff online is easier and more efficient (usually).

 

[Sparx]

I love printed text. I hate it when my classes try to make me use an online book. I don't use a kindle or anything. I can't read off an electronic source for very long (compared to how long I can sit and read a book) because it hurts my eyes. I have to get up from the computer every thirty minutes or so or my eyes start to ache.

However, I do have paperless statements, merely because I do all of my banking online and I know exactly how much is in there every day. I don't really need the physical statement telling me what I already know.

 

[TinkerTracy]

Yeah I took an online class this past semester, it was difficult to not have anything concrete like a textbook to hold.
Reading on a Kindle doesn't hurt my eyes while a computer screen does. It uses paper technology or something like that.

 

[Sparx]

Yeah I took an online class this past semester, it was difficult to not have anything concrete like a textbook to hold.
Reading on a Kindle doesn't hurt my eyes while a computer screen does. It uses paper technology or something like that.

the kindle isn't backlit is it?

I've had a few online classes and all of mine required a book, but i've had regular classes that wanted us to use an online book. it was so annoying!

 

[MickeyisBeast]

I like reading printed text.
When I have to read books or long lengths of text on the computer, I normally get a headache because of the light.

 

[TinkerTracy]

the kindle isn't backlit is it?

I've had a few online classes and all of mine required a book, but i've had regular classes that wanted us to use an online book. it was so annoying!

It's not backlit, you need to be in the light to read it. It uses a special technology, electronic ink, it looks exactly like a book.

And it's so annoying with the online class I took everything was articles and very disorganized and confusing. I also didn't like not having an actual professor, but that's another story.

 

[Axel]

I like having actual text books because I tend to write in the margins and I like being able to highlight things and mark them with those little flags (I'm such a child when it comes to those things).

Online books bug me, but reading online for extended periods of time doesn't really bother me that much. Although, it probably has something to do with why my eyesight is so bad.

 

[Babyjustrun]

Online books are annoying. My teacher tried to get us to read Lord of the Flies in a word document. It hurt my head, and the other teacher who typed it up had so many typo's, so we couldn't even copy & paste for quoting purposes.
/ It's kind of illegal to do that.

I like my bank statements online. It makes banking so much easier for my entire family. Paper statements are a waste of paper for us.

 

[telescope]

i hope not!

 

[dmslush]

I don't know.. sometimes to me, it seems like the more we work to be a paperless society, the more paper we create. For instance, the new timekeeping program at work. It is a multi million dollar program to help us become more mainstreamed and make timekeeping less time consuming.

Before, we would sign in and out on a time sheet at the secretary's desk. At the end of the week, the supervisors would sign off on our sheet and the secretary would enter out time.

Now, we sign in and out in the time sheet at the secretary's desk. Then at the end of the week, we take that sheet, go into the computer program and enter out time, print a copy of it, take it and the original time sheet to our supervisor, they sign it, and then we turn it in to the secretary and she goes into the computer and approves it. So, you took a 3 step process with one sheet of paper, added millions of dollars to it and it became 5 step process with two sheets of paper.

 

[HSMndLKfan92]

It's not online, but I opted to use my physics text book via cd.
Bad mistake. I can't deal with it.

 

[TinkerTracy]

It's not online, but I opted to use my physics text book via cd.
Bad mistake. I can't deal with it.

Does this mean that it is read aloud? Like a book on tape?
I would hate that, I don't like being read to.

 

[softball chick]

I think that we are headed in that direction, but I'm not so excited about some parts of it. Like at my school, they set up a whole turn it in electronically folder system so teachers can stop printing worksheets and have us do them with the mobile laptops labs. They are also working on implementing a 1:1 student laptop program to further aid this "paperless school". That kind of thing I am totally ok with...we waste so much paper with worksheets anyways. But I don't want to lose all my physical textbooks. I do so much better actually flipping through one then trying to deal with the online version of it. It just doesn't work. And I also agree that legal documents will always continue to be paper. They are just to important to not have a physical copy of.

 

[TinkerTracy]

Another question.
We are more comfortable using a hard copy textbook...what about the next generation?
Do you think the kids in elementary school now (or even younger) will prefer things on the computer?