What!?

I recently read an article about a person who won a contest to see who could make the best map of the United States.  That made me wonder who in the world uses hard copy maps these days.  I mean, it seems as though everyone I know either uses a handheld GPS or  a GPS application on their smart phone to get them from here to there.  If they don't do that then they use Google Maps or something like that.  I don't know anyone who uses hard copy maps.  Well, except for Ellie and me anyway.  We do carry hard copy maps with us when we travel, but that's only to justify the money we spend for our AAA membership.  Mostly they just sit in the map pocket of the car while we use Tess, our name for our GPS, to show us the way to go home.

Maps aren't the only paper goods that are rapidly becoming obsolete because of technology.  Look at books, for example.  “What!?” you say, “I don't read books anymore.  I either get audio books on CDs to play in the car while I'm behind the wheel or I read e-books on my Kindle, Nook, Ipad or whatever.”  Which is precisely my freaking point:  I'm about the only person I know who reads actual books made of paper and filled with printed words and silverfish.  New technology has just about replaced them. 

Another area where the printed word has disappeared is user manuals.  Did you get one with your last cell phone?  I bet not.  You probably had to go to the manufacturer's website and download a pdf file before you could figure out how the damn thing works.  That's even the case with computers and their many peripherals.  You're in serious trouble if you buy a new computer and don't know how to hook it up to the great user guide server in the cloud.  You're not gonna get any printed help.  You'll just have to call the Geek Squad.  If, that is, you can find their number without looking it up on the internet or a Yellow Pages CD.

It seems like all the folks who provide you with goods and services of any kind are pushing you away from paper too.  Recently one of my service providers, who always sent me a nice invoice and pre-printed envelope so I could send them a check for services rendered, started sending me emails with a pdf of my invoice attached.  So now I have to use my ink (which costs so much that I don't even print photos with it; I send them to Walgreens, electronically, of course) and my envelope to send in the check for the service I'm paying for.  I'm sure that before long they'll want me to pay electronically too.

Even the government is getting into the act.  Try sending in your income tax return on paper.  Sure, you can do it, but they give you a little disclaimer to let you know that they're going to drag their feet if you do.  And they want to deposit the check directly into your bank account instead of sending it in the mail like they used to.  I'm thinking they could go a long way toward solving the employment crises if they didn't eliminate jobs by using all this electronic communication instead of paper!  No wonder the post office is in big trouble.  Even the government doesn't use them to correspond with you.  In fact, even the freaking post office tries to get you to buy your postage online.  Hello!  I think I see why they need to close post offices all over the country.  And I'm beginning to understand all this business about going postal.

Of course I realize that all this is really nothing new.  Technology has been replacing old forms of things with new ones ever since the first cave man realized that he would get a better spear point by putting a broken piece of bone on the end of the stick he used to skewer rabbits or his neighbors or whatever.  Still, I find myself holding on to the old forms of things for as long as I can, even when I've replaced them with the newer, faster, sexier version.  For one thing it seems as though as soon as I donate the old stuff to some charity it shows up in a thrift shop or antique store where my wife buys it as a decorator item for three times what we paid when we bought it new.  Maybe that guy that spent two years making the best map of the US had the right idea after all.  He'll probably sell copies of it to people who hang it on the wall of their office where it will be ignored while they use Google Maps or their Iphone to plan their next trip.  Oh well, I guess that's progress.