Paper vs. The Computer Documents: The Benefits

Paper:

• Allows for more convenient collaboration on reports
  
• Is easy to change, amend, anno- tate without altering original text
  
• Displays all data within the frame of a page; it can be accessed simultaneously
  
• Allows one to view another’s interaction with the document
  
• Enables simultaneous view of multiple pagesAllows for personalization and individualization in one’s writing

The Computer:

• Does not lent itself to collaboration; one cannot view another’s reaction to the document easily
  
• Features documents made of multiple pages that the reader scrolls through; only one screen’s worth of information can be accessed at once
  
• Features data that is more easily searchable, shareable, compacted
  
• Creates new possibilities for personalization (fonts, designs, etc.)

Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Social Life of Paper.” The New Yorker 78.5 (2002): 92.