(Photo credit: Arvid)

The paperless office is still a way off for many companies, at ours we produce invoices, jobsheets, delivery notes and of course orders, most of which I still write out, by hand on paper with a Parker Slinger pen that hangs round my neck like some kind of modern silver and lime talisman (though it is really there so I don’t forget where I’ve put it down, and also so nobody wanders off with it).

At home too I write, between me and my monitor right now is a notepad that I scribble things on when the computer’s not on or if I really need to remember them.  Like many people I find that the act of physically writing something down helps with processing and remembering the information.

It seems though that, according to online stationer Docmail that I’m becoming part of a minority.  In a survey they found that on average people, on average, wrote only every 41 days.  One in three only wrote something once in six months – usually along the lines of “Happy Birthday, lots of love xxx”.  Possibly even with a smiley face to make it feel a bit more like Twitter or Facebook.  LOL.

Saving paper is one thing, though much paper comes from renewable and recycled sources today, but could people one day actually lose or not even bother to learn how to communicate text without a computer?  Perhaps only if technology becomes so ubiquitous and user-friendly that you could replace every use of pen and paper, right down to the scribble pad by the bed that you use to jot down the thought you had just after you switched out the light.  Until then my extensive collection of pens is safe.

[Gizmodo UK]