Issue 34: Do You Have Email Anxiety?
Welcome to Backstory, a weekly newsletter turning global technology shifts into a three-minute read. This week we’re thinking about the luxury of paper in an increasingly paperless world – Joseph Dana, Senior Editor
THE BIG TAKE
Do You Have Email Anxiety?
As communications increasingly go paperless, email is one of the most important written vehicles of our time. We can’t avoid it and can barely imagine life without it. It’s simply a part of us for better and worse. The irony is that we’re discussing this important topic … in an email. But there is a point to this madness.
Business vs pleasure: Have you noticed your business quietly going paperless in recent years? From emails to Slack messages and spreadsheets, digital has replaced paper as the go-to medium for workplace communication. Imagine the offices that our children will be working in. Do you see stacks of paper? The paperless revolution has even reached some forward-thinking governments. The Dubai Government aims to be fully paperless by 2021, and all transactions will be moved to a blockchain. We can’t stop the march away from paper – and it’s certainly a positive move for the natural environment – but we can consider how using paper in our personal lives might improve our relationship with the written word.
The luxury of paper: According to Quartz, the personal stationery industry is booming, with sales expected to surpass $128bn by 2025. E-commerce startups such as Sugar Paper, Minted, and Maurèle are growing the market with direct-to-consumer products that go far beyond simple cards and wedding invitations. Maurele sells personal stationery inspired by the letterheads of figures like Albert Einstein, Salvador Dali, and Frank Lloyd Wright. After a long day staring at screens big and small, who wouldn't love receiving a letter on such beautiful stationery?
The lost art of time: Anyone can push out an email from a smartphone but taking the time to sit and consider one’s thoughts into a handwritten note is something of a different order. That’s why there’s a time and place for paper in our paperless world. As businesses take advantage of the speed and efficiency of paperless communications, the luxury of paper can be reserved for downtime (physical books still outsell e-books). It’s the perfect antidote to email anxiety, which we apologise for adding to with this message.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Our ability to adapt is amazing. Our ability to change isn't quite as spectacular."
Lisa Lutz, writer
OUR VIEWS THIS WEEK
Blockchain and beyond: Speaking of blockchain, here are some facts. The blockchain marketplace will surpass $60bn by 2024. There are more than 1,200 blockchain startups in 50 countries. Roughly 66% of global financial institutions will be using the technology by 2020. The UAE has the highest number of blockchain pilot programmes in the emerging world, with more than 20 projects in Dubai alone. This technology is about much more than Bitcoin and that’s why we explored all its facets in our latest State of Play report available at Xische Reports.
Technology for good: It’s easy to get gloomy about the role of technology in society. From data privacy scandals to hacks of iPhones, it can feel like the sector is going in the wrong direction. Amidst the daily deluge of negative headlines, we pause to look at the good that new technology is doing for society in this piece from our archive. We can embrace the challenges posed by our technological era while keeping our eyes open to the incredible solutions modern tools provide us.
SPOTTED ELSEWHERE
Is the internet healthy? The New York Times magazine just published an entire issue devoted to the future of the internet. Regular readers of Backstory and Xische Reports will be familiar with much of the terrain the magazine traverses. Everything from the so-called luxury internet where privacy is linked to the money users are willing to spend to the rise of Chinese superapps (and how Western versions are copying them) is covered in deeply reported detail. The body of research about the present health of the internet and its future seems to circle around one idea: the internet has been fundamentally transformed in recent years and we don’t know exactly what its future will look like. The issue is a must read.
Time for a time out: We don’t hide our admiration for Estonia. The tiny Baltic nation is on the forefront of innovation in technology and government. Many of Estonia's innovations in the realm of blockchain and e-residency have made their way to the UAE. But their latest innovation in traffic management may be a tougher pill to swallow. Drivers caught speeding along the road between Tallinn and the town of Rapla were stopped and given a choice, according to The Economist. They could pay a fine, as usual, or take a “timeout” instead, waiting for 45 minutes or an hour, depending on how fast they were driving when stopped. Imagine all the cars queued along Sheikh Zayed highway on the morning commute.