Pencil, Eraser, Ruler and Paper - Will be Relevant for a Long Time Yet.

In this fast paced, user friendly, mobile App dependent world. There are millions, no, billions of people surfing and using the Internet to buy, sell, post their lives, pretend to be someone else, practically living their lives on a second parallel universe called the social media. 
Think Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for English speakers, for the Chinese it is WeiBo, Wei Xin, QQ, Thai, Japenese and Korean prefer Line and the list is endless based on geographical region, ethinicity, cultural influence and even political leanings.   

I for one, am only halfway convinced that the use of digital applications are so useful for everyday life. Here are the reasons why I think the old school stationary are still and will still be relavent for a long time to come yet.

1. You can plan, erase, draw, postulate and just doodle on scraps of paper. There is NO PERMANENCE in drawing a plan, or an idea, and erasing or taking out the excess lines, thoughts and question marks just by using an eraser. True, you can use the electronic Paint software and save some trees, but the feeling of CONTROL at my fingertips is better with a pencil compared to a mouse or a stylus.

Maybe its a generation thing :) 

I was born and played with real kids from the neighbourhood, had real dogs,cats and a parrot REAL animals as pets, caught and fought our spiders, reared fighting fish, song birds, catching longkang fishes (that was a massive thrill there), digging for worms and using them as fish bait, the REAL DEAL. 

None of this imaginery stuff of Pokemon monsters, virtual cafes and Wechat zapped over and received monies. Modern day kids are so deprived nowadays 

2.  Paper, eraser and pencil do not need electricity of depend on your phone battery life. Need I say more ? 

3. The feeling of accomplishment that your picture, your work, your creative doodling, can be framed and you and only you have the satisfaction of holding, smelling the acrylic oils and canvas which the electronic paintboard does and will never have.

4. Finally, the feeling of crushing something is SO SATISFYING when you have completed it, I normally take the Sunday Sudoku out from the papers (much to my wife's irritation sometimes) and spend about 30 minutes to an hour to finish the most demanding (they call it Extreme Sudoku, the Daily Telegraph guys) and when I am done, I have GREAT JOY in crushing that small piece of newspaper implicitly saying :

" THERE, I HAVE OVERCOME ! " (small victory but nonetheless an accomplishment !) 

Again, perhaps its my nature and the fact that I was born in the generation of physical things and being in the real world, reading real paperback books and using pen, paper,pencil, eraser and all these stationery shops have to offer.

True the information and knowledge has never been easier, at the touch or swipe of our smartphones, and we have knowledge of practically anything. They say knowledge is power, well I say the use and the application of that knowledge is the REAL POWER.

Back at the local stationery shop, I must be their dream Gold Class Customer !!!