I love the first three words of
this essay: “Paper still matters.” Ahhhhh.
That was a serene exhalation, FYI.
Throughout this article, the
author notes man’s return to such paper products as planners, notepads, and printed
pages. These modes of reading and
writing more thoroughly engage individuals in their tasks and, in so doing,
heighten productivity.
Indeed, off-screen reading
permits workers to better understand the geography of a document and to reflect on the
ideas presented.
I knew that the “aesthetic experience”
of paper would one day return as a trendy throwback to sophisticated times. I must note, however, that it took mankind a
despicably long time to realize that we cannot achieve the pervasive urbanity
and impact of Emerson and Shakespeare without ever touching pen to paper.
Another supremely worthwhile quotation
reads, ‘Paper reminds us that “we’re physical beings despite having to contend
with an increasingly virtual world... It
slows us down to think and to contemplate and to revise and recast.’” I agree.
Though I am always pleased to
defend such timeless tasks as writing and turning pages, I should admit that I
could never have attained such undergraduate success without a computer. I was an English major at Quinnipiac
University and partially attribute my impressive essays to the perks of
Microsoft Word. The ease of deleting,
rearranging, and locating appropriate synonyms helped me craft the most academically
moving papers. Though I would willingly recapture
my softball days to pitch such horrible technologies as cell phones and internet
routers into the willing gloves of my former teammates, I might not have excelled as a
student without Microsoft Word.
I suppose, then, that I enthusiastically
agree with this article’s assertions, though I would insist on retaining a
one-function computer to compose all final drafts on the back-lit, faux-paper
screen of Microsoft Word.
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