I had to go spelunking amongst old boxes for something. And as any self-respecting pack-rat who's moved even a few times knows, a lot of "stuff" surfaces during that process. I won't say that the years are making me less sentimental; I'll just say that the sentimentality is becoming more selective. And--surprisingly--more organized. But the "waste not. want not" ethos is still as strong as ever, which means that certain folks will shortly be the lucky beneficiaries of certain "stuff," all of it in paper form.
Which brings me around to musing at the power--today I would call it tyranny--of paper. Even in this digital age, it still (under certain circumstances) commands behavior that is nothing short of fetishistic. Seriously, think about this for a second: If a friend or relative sent you a holiday eCard in lieu of a paper one, wouldn't you feel cheated? If you were given a "formal" present (e.g. for your birthday), wouldn't you find it cheesy if it wasn't wrapped? If your birth certificate doesn't bear the embossed seal, is it officially "official?"
Digital isn't exactly an apples-to-apples proposition, really. After all, it's not like you can buy a refrigerator with LCD displays on the doors for your kids' artwork. And the local polling station--for good reason--will certainly never let you text your vote.
That's not to say that things haven't changed quite fundamentally. In my scrounging among dusty boxes, for instance, I encountered a stash of watermarked bond paper, left over from the days when mere copier-quality stock just would not do for a resume and cover letter. Now that seems almost laughably quaint.
For all that, I think that the notion of a paperless office--much less world--will never quite happen. For one thing, the mediums change too fast for the pack-rats of this world. It wasn't that long ago that the luck of knowing someone still using old hardware was the only thing that let me rescue twenty year-old data from 5.25" floppy disks without paying through the nose for the service.
The upshot is that there will be plenty of incentive for years and years to come for insisting on recycled paper. Now, if we just could find a way the penalize the gits who repeatedly clog our mailboxes with paper spam, it would be a better world.
