I woke up one spring cleaning day to the death of print. Imagine the horror when I threw out a pound of paper clips, follow by a thousand staples and 6 dozen empty folders. All to stare at my dusty printer and try to remember when was the last time I printed something … anything?
Print is dead, but who shot it? My bills are emailed to me, my faxes are emailed to me and payments are emailed to me. If i need to sign a document I can digitally sign it and if I need to deposit a check, I can use my iphone app.
Like watching a murder movie, their are all these different suspects that shot print. But the top three suspects are Economy, Technology and Time.
Economy I remember when people use to salivate over 16pt hard cover card-stock, 4 color, embossed with rounded corner business card. But as the value of our dollar goes down and the price of living goes up, it gets hard to justify paying $500 for 250 business cards vs a free Facebook page.
Technology It gives and takes at the same time. Every industry has felt the pull and push. As more things get “optimized” thru technological advancement, more people find themselves out of a job. At the same time, these same advancements birth things like e-books where schools can update their books more frequently for cheaper and magazine/newspaper have found an answer to their declining subscriptions.
Time Their just is no time. Our obsession with streamlining, optimizing, increasing productivity has caused us to live faster digitally, making no time for what “matter(s)”
So what the big deal. We are saving trees, therefore saving the planet. But I have to admit I will miss gifting a friend a good book, going page by page thru a photo album or handing a relative a heartfelt thank you card. BUT I do look forward to skyping with my family overseas that I never get to see, getting newborn baby pics texted to me the MINUTE they are born and having limitless amount of knowledge via my finger thx to google. At the end of the day, life is about give and take and the death of print is the birth of many advancements for all.