Paper and power

By Klaus Döring

Paper still matters, as I learned from fellow Inquirer staff writer Phyllis Korkki. Yes, paper still matters. The frequent whirring of printers in offices — despite the internet, Microsoft Word, social media (I love Facebook and Twitter), scanners, smartphone applications, and much more — attests to that.

Paper is a quiet yet profound invention that transformed human history. It allowed ideas to spread beyond elite circles, preserved scientific and cultural knowledge, and fueled global revolutions from the printing press to modern democracy. Even today, physical paper offers unique cognitive and practical benefits that screens cannot replace.

I am very old-fashioned in many ways. I was still typing on an old manual typewriter when my colleagues in different publishing houses were already using electric units. I loved my antique typewriter. I still love it today. Yes, it’s still here in my office in Davao City. I can’t use it anymore because no more ribbons are available in the Philippines. It’s OK. My electric typewriter is also here, just beside the manual unit. Those were the days, my love. . . .

It was sometime in the late 1990s. I worked in an international publishing house in Berlin with branches in Amsterdam and New York. I still used one of those wonderful electric typewriters — and tried to avoid a personal computer. Even during that time, I needed to hold paper in my hands. Paper, says productivity expert David Allen, is “in your face.” I strongly agree with David. He said, “Its physical presence can be a goal to completing tasks, whereas computer files can easily be hidden and thus forgotten.” I am also returning to paper planners for this very reason. Please, don’t laugh at me, my dear readers!

The power of paper lies in its unique ability to preserve human thought, foster deep cognitive focus, and act as a tangible, sustainable medium for communication and art that transcends the digital world.

David Allen, the author of “Getting Things Done,” does much of his writing on a computer. So do I now. But there are still times when I write with a fountain pen on a notepad. It allows me to get my head in the right place. When I tried to learn more from David Allen, I was really surprised that we have many things in common. Old-fashioned or not? I don’t care. Here are some facts:

Paper printouts serve an important function. For long texts, a printout can allow a reader to better understand relationships between sections and writings. Paper handouts are still a presence at meetings, partly because they are useful for taking notes. Reading a long document on paper rather than on a computer screen helps people “better understand the geography of the argument contained within,” said Richard H.R. Harper, a principal researcher for Microsoft in Cambridge, England, and co-author with Abigail J. Sellen of “The Myth of the Paperless Office,” published in 2001.

I also strongly agree with Sellen that using more than one computer screen can be helpful for all this cognitive juggling. But when workers are going back and forth between points in a longer document, it can be more efficient to read on paper.

How about “e-reading a book”? A novel, a drama, whatever? What do you prefer, my dear reader? Do you want to know my opinion? I am sure you can imagine. Yes, guys, I still need a book in my hands for my leisure reading. I need to feel the book, just as I need to smell a freshly printed newspaper. Environmentalists might start yelling at me now, though I am one of them. So, where is the edge and borderline?

Paper can indeed be a luscious and beautiful thing — the way we savor fine food and wine, as Steve Leveen, co-founder and CEO of Levenger, said. People complain that writing by hand is slow (yes, I really am!), but that can be good for thinking and creating! Here we are again!

Yes, it still matters: in defense of the power of paper! What do you think, my dear readers, while holding this newspaper in your hands right now?

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Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, or X (formerly Twitter), or visit www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.