Many global/national publications are going purely digital. Soon print shops will be out of business. I come from a background in print publications but have moved on. In fact, just this morning I was feeling sorry that my daughter has to carry so many binders and books in her back pack as they don’t get lockers until middle school. But slowly and surely, we’re stepping into the digital age. You can download books from your local library on your Kindles and tablets, many schools are switching over to online coursework, pretty much all magazine subscriptions are available online, etc.
Advantages:
Storage. I used to have piles of old magazines and was running out of space to stock them. Didn’t want to throw them out as I felt I spend so much $ buying them. Eventually recycled them but it was a pain.
Waste of paper. Look how much paper comes in with my kids from school. Weekly bulletins, book orders, announcements, flyers…and everything gets trashed. What a waste of ink and paper and energy. Why not email the parent? Some groups have started doing that and I really appreciate it!
Convenience. I get a reminder for a conference via email, link it to my calendar and I’m all set. Nothing to throw out, no stickies on my refrigerator, no hassles.
Discuss your views on this trend. What do you think some disadvantages are? Share more benefits, etc.
Future generation’s hand writing will deteriorate over the years and eventually will vanish altogher
A simple black out of a few hours will cost hundred of deads in hospitals and people feeling like living in the boonies in the middle of cities. Any event in life requiring calculations will make people handicapped and reliance on gadgets. :hinna:
Currently we have everything online.........books and notes. Personally, I HATE reading and trying to study using an online textbook. I like having notes in front of me to highlight and flip through. All of our professors used certain programs that make it impossible/difficult to print out slides. We were actually given (or more like forced to buy since it is built into our tuition) a specific laptop to use in class. No one uses pens/pencils to take notes; the classes just aren't structured that way.
I honestly feel like I still waste paper: printing certain sections of an online textbook, etc.............defeats the whole purpose.
To each their own though, whatever works. I'm sure that younger children who are exposed to digital learning from the beginning will be fine. It's harder for people who have always had physical resources to switch to digital way of learning.
Like The Jinx said above, it will remove the concept of writing with pen on paper. Also young children nowadays already spend a lot of their time on video games, tv and now if learning is confined to being online as well they will constantly be on computers or other devices. There needs to be a break between online and real life and children are more likely to get glasses.
Some parents try to avoid young children going on the computer, but by having homework online you are already opening them up to the internet. You won't be able to monitor them all the time they are on it.
Plus I like having real physical things to learn from, it gets tiring to stare at a computer screen all day long.
There was a time when they used chisel and hammer to engrave the words in a stone or clay tablet. I am sure that when someone invented paper, pen and ink combo, many must have cried that the art of chiseling and hammering will go away. And it did. But do we miss it?
The goal in human life is to reach the desired results with minimum amount of effort. That is what we call progress. Yes every now and then, we face exceptions (like blackouts and data wiep outs, but thin kof those days when to deposit a 200 rupees check, you have to go through 3 clerks, who would open and shut huge ledgers just to find your info.
I can't imagine going through whole school/college life on a computer screen with minimum amount of contact with real books.
Feels like a nightmare. All that exposure to the screen COULD NOT be good for health and general comfort.
There was a time when they used chisel and hammer to engrave the words in a stone or clay tablet. I am sure that when someone invented paper, pen and ink combo, many must have cried that the art of chiseling and hammering will go away. And it did. But do we miss it?
The goal in human life is to reach the desired results with minimum amount of effort. That is what we call progress. Yes every now and then, we face exceptions (like blackouts and data wiep outs, but thin kof those days when to deposit a 200 rupees check, you have to go through 3 clerks, who would open and shut huge ledgers just to find your info.
Chisel and Hammer? I think Chisel, Hammer, Pen etc. have been there simultanously from the beginning. People use to write on stones, leaves, leather skins of animals using some sort of pens. God created pen in the beginning and commanded it to write and it wrote, all that is in Loh-e-Mahfooz.
But even if we take the argument that Pen and paper replaced chisel and hammer then, it was still a replacement that would not have threatened the skills of humans in writing using their hands. Now they would just use their hands to stroke some keys and voila! We all have same writing kind of writting letters essentially in digital world.
Writing is tool that was invented/evolved when people realize that they have to communicate to others living far away, by sending them a message. We should stick to the end result, that is to send and preserve words in some shape and form so communication does not stop.
There was a time we used to write letters to each other that used to take days or even weeks to reach the destination. Now we send emails within matter of seconds. Yes we dont use pen or paper anymore, but the value that alternate method (electronic mail) has given us, out weighs the advantages that what we had to give away (hand writing).
BTW, what is the advantage of writing something with your hand other than the satisfaction of creation? I dont see the reason why we make a big deal out of doing something with hand, when we could use the technology to do achieve the similar or even better results in fraction of the time needed to do it by hand.
let's just focus on the efficiencies....forget about the "art" behind writing.....let fall by the wayside the rich history.
nostalgia never did anyone any good anyway
let's just focus on the efficiencies....forget about the "art" behind writing.....let fall by the wayside the rich history.
nostalgia never did anyone any good anyway
I also agree that looking at a computer screen all day may not be good for health. But if we can replace some of the irritating ways of communication, that would be a good start.
Art will never die but it is going to change its forms. 15 years ago, no one would imagine that art can be created using computer apps. Now we see it so often.
And looking at computer screen will change, as displays are changing that are more friendly to our eyes. Think of E-ink that Ereaders use. They are as easy on our eyes as any printed book.
You can pry out my classic Rotring 600s from my cold dead fingers when I die...
Typing simply does not give me the creative ability even when taking notes. I use an iPad for my notes at work, a gift from a true pal, but I use it alternating with or without a touch pen, its own keyboard or an external keyboard, type, draw circles, images, arrows connecting concepts etc.
The young scientists are able to use the computer to read journal articles. For me, when it refers you to sans and figures in different pages it is an absolute nightmare. One guy who just finished undergrad does not have a pen at his desk.
My hand writing has turned to mush...we're not used to writing as much these days. I used to have beautiful writing and now...its like I can't be bothered to pick up a pen. I want to type it all.
