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 models. I loved my antique typewriter. I still love it today. Yes, it is still here in my office in Davao City. I can no longer use it because ribbons are no longer available in the Philippines. It is OK. My electric typewriter is also here, right beside the manual unit. Those were the days, my love. …

It was sometime in the late 1990s. I worked at 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 using a personal computer. Even then, I needed to hold paper in my hands. Paper, according to productivity expert David Allen, is “in your face.” I strongly agree with him. He said, “Its physical presence can be a goad 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 us to get our heads in the right place. When I tried to learn more from David Allen, I was really surprised that we had 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 help a reader better understand the relationships between sections and passages. Paper handouts are still present 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, who said that using more than one computer screen can help with all this cognitive juggling. But when workers go back and forth between points in a longer document, it can be more efficient to read on paper.

How about reading an e-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 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 line?

Paper can indeed be a luscious and beautiful thing — something we savor like 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, paper 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; follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn or X (formerly Twitter); or visit www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.