Journal #7

   The main difference between print and digital media is that one is tangible and one is not physically available. What was argued in "The Social Life of Paper" was that because paper has a physical and
permanent presence it has many advantages over digital writing. Because writing on paper is permanent and tangible it can be easily distributed, annotated, and organized. It is also the best medium for interaction between groups because with paper you can write over or next to the original text to guide the original idea, you can skim through the paper, and can visually see how involved somebody is with your text based on how the are handling it. Also, because they have a physical presence they can be organized in any way, the article made examples of the messy desk and of the method of "piling". In this way, papers can represent active thoughts that are not yet finished. They can represent thoughts that are still in workshop, thoughts that have been completed, and thoughts that are urgent. This is the art of piling, a system that has been on going since the paper was first used in the office. Still the desk may look cluttered and unorganized to the misinformed viewer, but to the user is makes perfect sense. In a way, it represents our cognitive brain, processing many complex project and ideas at once.
   According to the article paper use has exponentially increased since the 90's, even with the resurgence of digital technology. So, I would say paper is the dominant medium but neither can be truly replaced.