The Digital Age --- Why We're Not Moving Toward A Paperless World

"Help, I'm Drowning"

Back in the summer of 1985, the gas pipeline company where this writer was employed, began the arduous task of switching from a hand generated paper environment to a digital environment. We received green screen Wang computers (see picture) with which to enter our requisition and purchase order data. The results of this changeover, was not less paperwork, but more paperwork requiring twice the effort (management didn't trust the computer nor the employees who entered the data).

Paper consumption in the office (see second heading) is at an all time high in our nation, and increasing yearly. In our local school district's main office complex, there are literally rows of filing cabinets in the hallways full of paperwork.

My question is, after using computers for over 30 years, why is it that we have more paper flow today in 2017 than ever before? The answer to this question is partially provided in the first paragraph of this article (note the parenthesis statement).

There are many reasons to go paperless (cost is just one reason), but because today's management still does not trust their employees, any more than they did over 30 years ago, there is more paperwork and paper flow today than ever before.

What's the solution to the above problem of distrust and mistrust? Form face-to-face relationships based on honesty and trust ..... our word being our bond ..... no paperwork necessary. No need of a National Honesty Day ..... no need for a pseudo online "community" of support groups (see here) or social media, but the desperate need to return to a society where real people interacted with one another face-to-face, eyeball to eyeball in "real time."

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets