Despite the soaring popularity of computers, BlackBerries and other electronic gadgets, Canadians are using twice as much paper as they did two decades ago, a new study suggests.
The Statistics Canada study concludes that paper has remained in demand across the business world, with paper consumption more than doubling in Canada between 1983 and 2003. "We (found) that the consumption of paper, for printing and writing, has increased significantly in the last two decades," said Heidi Ertl, a Statistics Canada analyst.
But Brian Sharwood of the SeaBoard Group consulting firm said things have changed even in the past three years.
"There's been much more of a paperless office since 2003," he said in an interview. "I think it had to do with people's comfort level with computer and data storage... . IT departments are more comfortable with the concept of digital document storage."
In his role as a technical consultant to businesses across North America, Sharwood shuns paper, preferring instead to use e-mail and compact discs to share information with clients.
He revels in the fact that a room formerly filled with file cabinets now sits empty and that five years of reports and presentations have been converted into handy electronic files.
He does not recall using regular mail for personal correspondence since sending thank- you notes to friends after his wedding two years ago.
Sharwood said the study reflects a trend he often sees in his consulting work.
"It takes a long time to get rid of what people are comfortable with," he said. "The past gets integrated into what newer people are doing."
Ertl agreed, saying the study highlighted the fact that technology complements existing business practices.
The study, which touched on various trends in technology, also revealed that volumes of postal mail - snail mail - have been rising, although its composition has changed.
And couriers and local messengers are proliferating even as Internet and e-mail use is soaring.
The study calls the "talkative society" one of the most visible results of new technologies.
"People have never spoken on the telephone more," it says, "and particularly at a time when they also send and receive massive amounts of e-mail and other electronic communications."
