EOTO Reflection: Invention of Paper

The first form of paper was created by a dignitary that served the imperial Chinese court by the name of Cai Lun. He made it out of old rags, tree bark, and fishing nets. Before paper, people used stone tablets, cave writings, papyrus, parchment, bamboo, wood, and silk to keep written records. I could not imagine lugging around rocks to write on or using expensive materials such as bamboo. Paper is easily made, it is affordable, and is now used everyday in today's society.

A major advantage of paper's creation, is that it has aided in the evolution of humans. Pen and paper have been tools that have helped humans learn to read and write. Not to say that people did not learn how to read and write before the invention of paper, but paper made it easier for more individuals to practice language and become educated. Also, paper has allowed humans to efficiently share ideas with no limit to the length of words. 

Today we use paper for almost everything. Although I know that online learning is becoming more popular than the traditional style of pen and paper learning, I grew up using paper to write out all of the letters of the alphabet, learn grammar, and express my ideas through essays. Even if schools are gradually using paper less, businesses use paper everyday to keep files on their customers, and they also use it for receipts of transactions. Additionally, newspapers and magazines have been our main ways of staying updated of current events and trends and are produced everyday in bulk. However, even news sources have moved online. I think that eventually, there will be no need to use paper in countries like the U.S. as everything is become so online-based.

Although paper has been a super helpful invention, a negative aspect associated with its use is deforestation. Obviously, we make paper out of trees so we have to chop down several to continue to produce it. Every invention has an unintended consequence that we should be aware of.