Context
This post is a response to an argument raised at IndieWebClub#23 Bangalore. The argument states:
Writing on paper is dead and you should throw out your notebooks/journals.
Other hot takes can be found at the page Hot takes from IndieWebClub in the absence of Tanvi - azan-n.com
Establishing the Argument
Before I attempt to refute the argument, I would like to construct a version of the argument to be refuted. I would assume the writing in this argument applies to the action of inscribing creative expression as an application of language onto a persistent medium, and the substance of the argument is that the era of using paper as that medium is at a close.
Counterpoint
In this section I would like to establish the continuing relevance of Paper as a medium for creative expression deriving from language. It will focus on the history of usage of Paper for such purposes, the accessibility of Paper, and the versatility of Paper along with other derivative arguments.
The Wood Cloth of History
Paper is unfathomably old, supposed to have been invented (like several other innovations of statecraft) in China, where it was used to perform administrative tasks with great efficiency. Presumably important duties like copying of administrative decrees and royal orders, as well as keeping records needed by the imperial bureaucracy. Paper has many advantages compared to what has existed earlier. Human memory is fragile, and biased. Paper is not. Paper is cheap to produce, made from wood fibers and rags. It also holds material well, as is evident from it's use in packaging in the form of cardboard, and the many many paper envelopes made each day, as well as it holds to pigments very well, evidenced by the many many reams of paper which are printed every day.
Nearly two millenia of history establish Paper as a very versatile material, capable of holding tea leaves, currency, certificates, decrees and signatures without immense cost. There in are two of the most profound advantages of Paper as means of expression. Paper is versatile, and able to hold many different forms of writing. Be it the Sinitic scripts of East Asia, or Indic ones in South, or Latin derived ones of Europe. Cheap paper makes the writing (and consequently creativity spurred by writing) accessible at a surprisingly low cost (no doubt supported by near 2000 years of innovation).
Any reasonable contender to paper, needs to have multiple centuries of thought and innovation put into it to be even marginally competitive to the amount of human ingenuity that has been invested into establishing paper as a medium of writing. As opposed to whatever medium will exist in the future. Paper thus is uniquely suited for writing.
Everything you can Imagine
A pen and paper are universal in way several other tools aren't. They can be and have been used across millenia to represent nearly every possible idea in every format imaginable. From artists cross hatching the shade of a Mango Tree, to a writer writing about the Children playing underneath. Paper can give form to nearly any breadth of ideas something that is simply not possible in other media.
Writing on Paper is a bidirectional process, the process dictates the pen as much as the pen dictates the process. An example can be found in the scripts of South India, which by the virtue of being written on Palm Leaves, a medium similar to paper, develop softer more rounded features which do not tear the writing medium as much. While keyboards and other methods remain bounded by the limitations of the representable symbols. The paper remains a boundless medium which often forces writing to adapt, as much as it deforms under the writers pen.
Writing and Paper
Writing is a very two dimensional process, it has it's origins in the many symbols ancient humans drew on the walls of their cave shelters, carved on the surfaces of rocks they used for their tools, and other such surface artwork. Ergo, the process of writing is intimately tied to two dimensions, or surfaces. It is rather challenging to imagine writing breaking these constraints.
This too makes Paper uniquely suited for writing, Paper is quite literally beaten into two dimensions, and the writing instruments for paper: pens and brushes, uniquely mark it in two dimensions. This dimensional constraints make paper (and any surface material) perhaps very well suited to writings.
The Economics and Ecology
Paper is surprisingly economical, it is renewable, being made from beaten wood pulp, or even recycled old paper. Trees can be grown again, and beating at scale is cheap. It is insanely cheap to make paper and ink, and other writing materials, and the materials are nature derived.
Conclusion
Between all the points raised in this article, paper I believe still represents a very viable medium and uniquely suited to creative writing. In spite of challenges or alternative suggestions, the unique economics and the expressive freedom, and the suitability for the written word make paper uniquely very well suited to written interaction.
Comparing to Electronic Media
While, not in the spirit of argument. I will still compare Paper to electronic media, which is touted as a replacement. While electronic media offers visual fidelity, that fidelity is often constrained by the underlying driver of the electronic media. That is to say, Microsoft Word, will always look one specific way, if you want unconstrained literary freedom, paper is the only medium to offer that. Electronic media also suffers in the cost of it's making which is not feasible for mass manufacture, neither is the amount of non degradable or unsafe material that goes into the manufacture of these alternatives. Making paper a more sustainable medium for writing.