I still like paper

I love computers, I watch cable TV, have a high-speed internet connection at home and enjoy the benefits of regular emails from or instant messaging with friends and family from California to Scotland.

And I’ve played with a wide range of high-tech digital gadgets that can help keep appointments, find the shortest route to Dayton with audible turn-by-turn instructions or snap up to 400 digital still images.

I really enjoy all of the conveniences and efficiencies wrought by our increasingly digital existence. But I still like paper. I have nothing against trees - we should save as many of them as we can. And I’m glad that the digital age has helped out a great deal in that regard.

But, like I said, I like paper.

I’m sure most of you who are reading this are doing it with the paper version. Before you started reading, with a glance you knew just about how much time or effort it would take to read from beginning to end. You can feel the words. You can touch them.

The printed page doesn’t turn blank when you set it down for five minutes to answer the phone.
Paper doesn’t pause for a commercial, or force you to sit and read it from beginning to end without pause like a PBS drama.

You can put paper in a scrapbook, or fold a treasured piece of it for safekeeping in your wallet.
Paper is really more on-demand. When a newspaper’s spread wide open you can quickly glance at a variety of headlines, photos or ads and within a split-second focus on the item that strikes your fancy.

And when you find that gem you want to read, you can fold it into a nice, neat size that you can prop in front of you on the table while you’re petting the dog.

Paper doesn’t barrage you with in-your-face spam. And with paper you don’t have to use your mouse to scroll down the page. A tilt of the head and you’re on to the next line.

A paperless society? Not likely.

No matter how compact they make them, you can’t comfortably curl up in the evening with a digital display of the latest Tom Clancy novel and a bowl of chips or slurp cereal and work the crossword puzzle at a keyboard on a lazy Sunday morning ... And I suspect not a lot of people can use a discarded laptop to wrap fish or train a puppy.