Dear Editor:

Alex Bonnott did well to point out that “going paperless has its downsides, too.” Being totally paperless makes possible that I do “not even have to leave my bed,” because I have “no need to go to class at all.” What kind of education is happening when the students and their teacher fail to assemble in one room to exchange thoughts, in non-PC fashion, on a subject or topic? An experience even worth calling an education?

For this assembly students would need to walk to class, from room to room, even building to building. As a side note, researchers find serious obesity even among the young. They speculate that longevity is changing. The young might not live as long as their parents, something new. They did need to leave the house every work day. You know, diet and exercise.

So with pen in hand that blank sheet of paper stares at you. Strain you brain. Apply logic and reason. What facts matter, and which are so much distraction or fantasy? Do your verbal maps describe the territory? Such behavior causes us to pause, something not allowed in electronic media, which “sucks you in.” It engages your emotions, not your thinking.

So buy that paper and pen. Prepare for the pause it offers.

-Leonidas Miller, Mattoon resident