1. Documents can be saved forever on the vast landscape of the Internet, ready for retrieval in case the original is lost.
2. This decreases the need for paper (Thanks Captain Obvious. How's the weather?). So less rain forests getting cut down and less homeless baby monkeys.
3. Communication is INSTANT. I remember back around the turn of the century when everyone was freaking out about this. Do you remember? "E-mail is amazing! I can send a letter to my sister in Washington and she will receive it INSTANTLY!" It wasn't until e-mail came around that people started calling the US Postal Service "snail mail."
The Internet has already converted the shopping process to paperless. The credit system converted long ago. The healthcare system is making the transition at this moment! And other companies like banks and other money-changers are also sending bills over the internet rather than in paper.
I was reminded of this because my mom received a note (in our snail-mailbox) from her cell phone provider reminding her that if she was still receiving her bills in paper form, there would be a $1.50 charge from now on. Now that's cool with me. I receive my bills over the Internet and it's fine with me. I love it that I can subscribe to tons of different periodicals from professional and amateur writers for free through the Internet. I love being able to read an article from any national newspaper. I love receiving emails and Facebook messages from my friends and family. But something about everything going paperless scares me!
There is value in receiving love in paper form. I currently write letters to four people pretty regularly, and I cherish their letters so much! I've saved all the personal letters and cards I've received since I was a very young boy! I can't wait until I'm on a mission and receive letters from friends and family because I will be able to pick them up anytime and know that it was penned by someone's own hand. I will hold the same envelope that was placed in the mailbox by someone I love. I will open the seal that was glued by the spit of someone I hold dear! Yeah that last one was a bit gross. But still. For centuries, people have collected and saved these documents and passed them down to their children. Letters have changed the world! Would you believe that twenty two of the twenty seven books in the New Testament are epistles, or letters? Personally I can't imagine any emails changing the world in such a way.
So my point is this:
Please go paperless! Save those monkeys in the rain forest by receiving and paying your bills online. Subscribe to blogs and take full advantage of our newspapers' archives. But PLEASE don't let our culture replace meaningful letters with emails. It's worth it to own some hard copies of our epistles and missives. When you are dead, do you think your children will print off the emails you sent them and place them in a special box? I don't. That's why sending letters is so important! A letter is something that someone sat down to write, something that took time, and something that took a bit of effort. Even though they're not instant, they are worth the wait. If you have something important to say, say it in ink.
