A Paperless Society

Today we live in a digital society; the invention of the internet has allowed us to communicate instantly via e-mail and various social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Bills can now be paid online, without a single piece of paper exchanging hands. Research has become immediately gratifying, with numerous search engines, and you can even download entire books with just a click of your mouse. As the internet continues to relieve paper of its duty, we begin to imagine a paperless society. However, could life as we know it actually function without paper?

This question was also brought up by Jen Lukenbill in her blog The Journey Towards a Paperless Society.  Lukenbill argues the cons of going to paperless society.  She claims paper is still a necessity.  Paper is needed to make labels for prescription bottle so medications are not given to the wrong patients, mail in general even with online billing and shopping, because everything you buy online still needs some form of paper product to be boxed or packaged and sent to you, no matter its packaging it still uses paper.  Then she brings up another very interesting point that may be the most important.  Our children learn brainstorming, critical and creative thinking skills while sitting down with a piece of paper (www.aboutmyplanet.com). 

I agree with Lukenbill.  I don’t think we can live without paper.  We need it for virtually everything.  Paper is still needed to label prescription bottles, as Lukenbill pointed out, instruction manuals, our mail, items in stores, like food boxes.  Most importantly, I think our children need paper to develop critical and creative thinking.  Do you remember using paper in elementary school when it was time to draw?  I remember sitting at my deck in kindergarten with a sheet of paper and paint in front of me, making finger paintings of my family and smiley face on the sun.  “Kids learn creative thinking and brainstorming if you sit them down with paper, glue, markers, glitter, and other bright materials. Of course, they could learn creative thinking in front of a monitor, too, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun (Lukenbill).  Not only drawing on paper developments the minds of our children, but the printed books they read while growing up do as well.

Young adult author and teacher Kami Garcia argues in her blog, Do Libraries Really Matter, how important printed books are to children.  I also agree with Garcia when she claims that libraries really do matter, because they offer access, opportunity and identity (http://kamimgarcia.typepad.com).  Many children all over the country live without books, either their parents are too poor to buy them or don’t value them at all, and the only way for a child in these situations to access a book is through the library.  “Denying them that access is equivalent to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic segregation. As a country, we complain about the level of illiteracy, unemployment, and crime -- yet we are denying people the one thing that will allow them to rise above these conditions -- education.  To pursue or further one's own education, you need books” (Garcia).  Without access and education, you are taking away opportunity in a way. A book, like a sheet of paper, is a tool for children to shape their imaginations and expand their understanding of the world.  Garcia also claimed that books can help a child shape them into the person they will become.  I agree with her.  If you give a kid who likes animals a book about animals and how to take care of them, maybe that would lead he or she to become a veterinarian.

Now books are being converted to eBooks, or electronic books, and downloaded onto eBook Reader devices, Apple iPads, and Amazon Kindles instead of printed (Lyons). Also with the support of people like Microsoft researcher Bill Hill, who supports eBooks in his article Toward a Paperless Society, claiming the electronic book will make books available anytime, anywhere.  I disagree with Hill on that claim, because going to eBooks would still deny some children of books.  There are still families in the country without a computer or internet access at home, and many do not have the eBook reading devices, nor do they have the money to get those resources.  So what are you supposed to do if you don’t have that capability?

In my opinion, we are not ready for a paperless society.  We use paper too often, and it is essential in completing day-to-day tasks, such as printing records, mailing snail mail, reading the newspaper, a magazine, or a book.  Paper is crucial to our children’s development and education, and if we want our children to continue to grow and develop creative qualities, we should not take away their tools for creativity.

--Letitia Elkins