ShaggyJebus wrote...
Good answers, everyone, but let me change this a bit:
Will paper ever become obsolete to the average person?
As I've already said, very few people send real letters anymore. It's all email and texts. With entertainment, downloading is huge right now, and I imagine it'll only get more popular. Comics don't have to be bought and read in your hands - they can be downloaded and read with more ease. Same with books; there are devices made specifically to read digital books. And a lot of people don't seem to miss the feel of a real book in their hands. For notes, there are the palm pilots and everything; it's not hard at all to jot a note down in one of those. And while the technology could fail, batteries could die, people don't seem to mind too much. I'm about the only person I know that actually uses a watch. Everyone else uses their cell phones. (A little off-topic, but the point is, people blindly trust that their things will always work.)
Even when it comes to taking notes in a classroom (or meeting, I suppose), people can use laptops. In the not-too-far-off future, it may be that every person in a class will have a laptop in front of them instead of a pencil and paper. Would we let that happen? Or would that be natural progression?
Depends on the definition of "average people".
If third worlders count paper will never become obsolete because it is cheap and effective. A recent "laptops for every child" drive in africa met with utter failure. While the children were indeed given laptops, there were numerous reasons for these laptops not working that well. For one thing, there was an utter lack of infrastructure. They had laptops, but no internet connection. In some instances, I'd imagine lack of electricity itself is a problem. There were other reasons, but the country that received the laptops was simply too poor.
About the only way for paper to become obsolete is if trees become extinct. Which, at the rate things are going, is quite possible,