Paperless paper

It's a technology that's been around for a few years, but until now it hasn't been proven to be a practical alternative to the newspaper. How useful a product this will prove to be in years to come remains to be seen; see here for one of the newer electronic reader products.

However, in this article written by Steven Rosenberg, the author explores the technolgy and concludes that "sitting on a commuter train, I suddenly realise there's another good thing you can do with an ordinary newspaper that you couldn't do with a flashy electronic one. Leave it behind for someone else to read."

There you have it. Confirmation that even a well informed journalist can still act under the misguided impression that he is helping a fellow passenger by abandoning his own reading material. But why? You wouldn't leave your book behind would you? You probably wouldn't leave a magazine behind? Any 'disposable' product that is left behind on the public transport network costs us both environmentally (by landfilling of precious resources) and fiscally (through our local council taxes).

The article goes on to observe that if you lose your newspaper "it's no problem - 50 cents. But if you lose an electronic newspaper it will be expensive for you." And even more so on the environment.

Will people be able to adjust their own reading habits in favour of technologies that require a certain amount of forethought, or will impulsive demand for consumption mean that products like disposable newspapers will be around for a lot longer than some may think?