Was debating with a buddy who swears the 'paperless office' prediction was actually right...

So I found this old article from 1975 talking about how by the year 2000 we'd have a paperless office where everything is digital and no one prints anything. My buddy argues it came true because of email and PDFs. But I run a grooming shop and I swear I go through more paper now than ever before... appointment cards, intake forms, receipts, vaccine records, it never ends. I asked him about my situation and he said my industry just lags behind. What do you all think... was the paperless office prediction a total bust or did it mostly happen and we just don't notice because of exceptions like vet forms and handouts? Has anyone else seen a prediction that seemed wrong but their friend claims it's actually right?

2 comments

2 Comments

coleman.jade20d ago

Honestly I used to think the paperless office was a joke too. I worked at a dental clinic and we had stacks of intake forms and insurance paperwork everywhere. But my brother is a software engineer and he pointed out that offices used to have entire rooms just for filing cabinets. Now most people don't have that. The stuff we do print is way less than what used to be normal. Your grooming shop is probably an exception like he said. The prediction wasn't wrong for the average office worker, it was wrong for everyone else.

craig.parker20d ago

@coleman.jade brings up a good point about the filing cabinets, but people miss a bigger thing (and I mean way bigger). The paperless office failed because nobody thought about how paper works as a backup and a legal proof. Like, your grooming shop uses paper because if your power goes out or your tablet dies, you still need to know Fido is getting a bath at 3pm. Paper is this weird failsafe that tech companies never accounted for, and it’s not just about lagging behind. My buddy works in HR and says they still print termination letters because digital signatures have weird legal loopholes in some states. So even in the "average office" people print contracts and forms all the time, just not as much.