Written Task Number 1

Jenilyn Denise T. Chua Miss Maria Purificacion R. Razon

10 – Karunungan Family March 26, 2021

Argumentative Speech: “Should We Strive For a Paperless Society?”

With technology getting better and better by the day, there is so much about our lives
that has changed. There are so many things we do now that weren't even possible a decade or
two ago, from how we interact to how we consume media. The way we use paper has changed
dramatically over the last few years. In many ways, it has become redundant now that
technology has progressed so far. However, is a paperless society something that we want to
live in? Many universities and schools use computers and mobile devices in the classroom to
improve students like me in academic performances, and new technology is continuously
finding its way into society in an approach to strengthen the learning experience. This type of
technology would help to eliminate the need for paper in the classroom. When it comes to
implementing the paperless classroom, colleges, universities, and schools all take different
approaches. One thing is to replace books, paper, and pens with iPads or mobile phones.
 
If we haven't already, we might find it makes sense to abandon paper for our sole
purposes, whether for environmental reasons or simply to get a discount for moving our billing
online. We would think that as technology advances and becomes more widespread in
everyday life, paper use will be phased out, or at the very least drastically decreased. Instead,
over the last 20 years, paper consumption has skyrocketed. Paper usage itself is not inherently
bad for the environment, at least not in comparison to other materials like plastics, which is why
there's been a recent trend toward replacing plastic straws with paper straws. However, the
process of recycling, disposing of used paper or producing it fresh leaves quite the carbon
footprint, making it the fourth-biggest contributor to greenhouse gasses in the world.

As we might expect, there are many reasons to consider reducing the amount of paper
used by us people. Naturally, the best advantage of living in a paperless society is that it has a
lower environmental impact. Although most newly manufactured paper is made with renewable
energy, and recycling paper reduces the number of toxic chemicals released into the
environment, reducing our use of paper has a significant effect on the environment. One of the
reasons that trees are cut down every day is for paper, so if that demand is eliminated, the rate
of deforestation will almost definitely decrease. A tree can only produce 17 reams of paper on
average and takes 100 years to grow. People can have a direct effect on lowering their carbon
footprint by minimizing paper usage. With so much concern about climate change and our
current effect on the environment, more trees in our forests can only be a good thing. Hopefully,
it will have a meaningful enough positive impact to help us move toward a cleaner and safer
future. The beauty of going paperless is that it not only saves the environment but it also saves
people a lot of money. By automating business processes and shifting to more eco-friendly
workflow solutions, people can save hundreds, thousands, and millions of money this year, and
every year.

If I ever had trouble finding something because there's so much paper around, a
paperless society will probably be ideal. After all, keeping track of papers is a lot easier when
they're stored on one’s computer. We will never have to be concerned about misplacing
important documents again. Bills and paperwork quickly pile up, and it's not long before physical
copies begin to take up a significant amount of space. To do the same thing that computers
linked to a network can now, an archive of filing cabinets were once required. Plus, since there
won't be any paper on the desk or in the drawers, we will have a lot less clutter in our home or
office.

Living in a paperless society, of course, has its shortcomings. I am not going to pretend
that life in a land without paper is flawless, and there will ultimately be some disadvantages as
technology expands its reach. If we rely on technology for everything, we'll be pretty much
screwed if our computers ever break down. All it takes is the power to go out, and we're back to
square one. Furthermore, storing everything on devices exposes us to more danger. Even with
today's advanced security measures, the rise of interconnected technology has made things a
bit easier to steal information. There are plenty of scammers and hackers out there desperate
for your information, and they’re getting smarter by the day. It might come back to bite us if we
don't take precautions while using the internet. Because we are unlikely to get access to this
kind of customer data without physically breaking into a building, keeping this data as a physical
copy makes it harder to acquire it illegally.

Although going paperless has a lower environmental impact than producing, pulverizing,
and recycling paper, computers, and servers aren't carbon neutral either, since they all need
electricity, which is frequently generated from non-environmentally friendly techniques. It's
amazing, and a little frightening, how many hours a day someone spends staring at a screen. If
you work in an office or like today's situation, work from home and online classes, you are likely
to spend the entire rest of eight hours staring at a computer. Most people, on the other hand, do
not give their eyes a break after hours so they spend the rest of the day looking at their phone
or watching television. All that time spent staring at a screen is bad for our health, and a
paperless society can only worsen the problem. We will waste more time staring at a computer
or something else with a screen now that we have no excuse to look at a paper. Inevitably, this
would result in more cases of headaches and people developing vision issues. The demand for
paper will almost definitely continue to decline as technology advances. Given the potential
dangers, it's probably best that we don't become a fully paperless society.
 
Weighing up both sides of the argument, I acknowledge that electronic communications
have certain considerable advantages, such as universal access for anyone with a computer
and near-instant delivery. However, it's no surprise that, even though many people we know
have gone "paperless" to help the environment, they still have a stack of printed papers on their
desks. It's the inconsistency between the supposedly limitless benefits of a paperless world and
the realities of the subtle shackles that such systems impose on us. Frequent replacement of
computer hardware and software has also been found to be harmful to the planet's and people's
health. Furthermore, computers have increased rather than reduced the amount of paper used
so far. We'd still have to clear the forests and clean up the piles of toxic plastics and metals.
Considering the computer as a tool for creating and managing media from the print and audio-
visual eras, such as printed text and image, sound and film recordings, as well as a medium in
its own right, already indispensable in its ability to create databases, I can see that new forms of
communication and creation are emerging and that we are in the midst of a revolution. We may
need new skills for new media, but they should be balanced against existing ones so that we
can become the most well-round human yet, rather than the most fragmented. Even though
everyone in the world is literate and computer literate, information access would not be free or
equal. Many people believe that the future is now, but this is not the case. Now is the time when
our past experiences and nostalgia, as well as our future thoughts and dreams, compete to
influence the real future. We are still a long way from becoming a mostly paperless society, and
paper books will still have a place in our society, but digitization is unmistakably on the rise.
References/Sources:
https://www.formstack.com/resources/blog-paperless-office.
https://learn.ademero.com/infographic-paperless-office-document-management-statistics/
https://www.dartmouth.edu/~cushman/courses/engs171/Paper.pdf
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/04/02/going-paperless-a-journey-worth-
taking/?sh=498996b05ca1
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ehrlichfu/2014/09/24/the-paperless-society-is-far-from-paperless/?
sh=25da92a87088
https://www.nap.edu/read/9458/chapter/9

Date Started: March 12, 2021 Dorothy T. Chua

Date Finished: March 13, 2021 Parent’s/Guardian’s Signature Over Printed Name