The coming of the computer age was
supposed to herald the paperless office yet many years later paper is still
going strong. We seem to be using as much paper as ever before.
CTV reporter,
Scott Lightfoot, did a report on this. It mentioned that some companies are concerned that digital records may not
have the same permanence as paper. Joanne Mc Neish, from Ryerson University,
said there is a link between paper and memory, which you don’t get with a
digital record. One company mentioned in Lightfoot’s report said that they had
gone almost totally digital.
At first glance
going paperless seems to make sense. It saves paper and space. It’s also easier
to copy and to access. As an environmentalist I should be thrilled as it means
fewer trees cut down for paper and less waste and all the energy and other
resources involved. A room full of electronic data houses more than a room full
of filing cabinets.
However,
overall going digital without saving a paper copy does not make good sense. For
starters programs and storage formats change. When I computerized in the 1980s
I had floppy disks with limited storage space. For a word processor I used
WordStar. Since then I’ve used small hard disks, CDs and, now, an external hard
drive to store data on. My word processor has changed to Word Perfect and now
to Word. I do save data in both Word and ASCI, ASCI in hopes that I can
continue to read it years from now.
Another
problem with electronic data is that you need to keep two or more copies of it
in two or more places in case something goes wrong with one storage medium. If
you store your data in the cloud then you’re at risk for having data accessed
by unauthorized persons. A magnet can easily erase most data.
Paper, while
vulnerable to fire and flood damage, is more permanent. A flood can wipe out
electronic data, but not necessarily paper data. Language may change, but you
can always access the document if physically present. You can copy paper
documents, but not as easily as electronic ones.
Another big
advantage of paper over electronics is that paper can be read anywhere without
a computer or electricity. All it requires is the ability to read.
Electronic
data is all that environmentally friendly as it seems. Trees are renewable and
you can recycle paper. With electronic data and storage there are the materials
needed to manufacture the electronic devices needed to read and store the data,
which are not renewable. Recycling is a much bigger issue with electronics than
with paper. If you throw paper away say into a woods, while it looks messy, it
will eventually disintegrate over a few months to a year or so. An electronic
device thrown away in a woods will take decades and even centuries to
disintegrate, plus there is the danger from the materials used leeching into
the environment.
In
short a paperless office is not the way to go.
