New technologies increase paper consumption

2002/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Teknologia

Although it has been announced over and over that computers, internet and email were going to destroy the paper, reality gives a very different image. Two British researchers, in their book entitled ‘The Myth of Paperless Office’, have analyzed the relationship between new technologies and paper consumption and concluded that new technologies have meant greater paper consumption. For example, in offices where there is email, paper consumption has increased by 40% (these calculations do not include documents printed from the Internet). And why? Among other things, because electronic media are not as suitable for reading as paper.

For example: whoever is working with a document, can read above, or underline, mark, jump from one page to another… all this becomes more comfortable on paper than on the computer. Although electronic media has been used to fill, search and archive documents, the paper has not lost strength.