Picture the scene.
It’s nearing home time on a Friday, and you still have those important documents due. All you want is to get out of that building and into your car ready for the weekend – but you can’t.
Those documents need to be handwritten because you live in a world in which printers were never invented. Get settled in and order that pizza, you’re going to be in the office for a while.
Looking around, you see your co-workers hunched over their notebooks, furiously scribbling down their work before they’re free for the night. The walls of your office are covered in scraps of paper with handwriting that ranges from barely legible to downright indecipherable.
Nothing can be scanned, and every document must be duplicated by hand like monks rewriting the Bible. Communication is via email or online, meaning extra steps to collaborate on projects that could have been as simple as printing out a couple of sheets of paper and writing on it.
The workplace is unorganised chaos.
This havoc in a world without printers extends out of the workplace. There are no books to read, no photographs of loved ones in a frame on your bedside table, no posters of your favourite musician’s new album hung up on the street as you walk past.
When you take a trip to a new city on the train, there’s no printed copy of the ticket to save in your box of memories. Instead of being able to send and receive cards to your technophobe grandmother, all messages are sent over email or text – fun.
Doesn’t the world sound dull without printers? These unassuming office machines are in fact some of the most important technology out there; without them, the world would be in shambles.
Printers eliminate the time-consuming process of handwriting multiple documents, presentation handouts and materials simultaneously. Information can be quickly shared or filed amongst co-workers, so you’re all on the same (printed) page.
These machines may seem mundane at first glance, but they’re truly the master of organisation in the office. Not only that, printers are responsible for widespread and accessible forms of information like books, newspapers photographs and art – all things we maybe take for granted in day-to-day life.
Yes, printers may be boring, but we’re proud to appreciate how necessary they are.
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