Hardcopy

My boyfriend was flipping through a copy of my thesis today and spilled some water on it. Without thinking, my first reaction was to say, “Don’t worry. I have a hard copy on the computer.”

Have we reached some sort of tipping point in favor of the paperless office? Paper tears easily; it becomes yellow and brittle; it is a sponge for humidity, oil, and dirt; it presents myriad environmental issues. A hard copy used to be a way to be extra super sure that important information wouldn’t get lost, but with today’s reliable hardware and regular backups it’s quite likely that digital formats will outlast physical ones.