Please sign up for paperless statements. I receive that message all the time in my email inbox. I realize this is the electronic age and we need to save paper, but I have a problem with electronic statements.

I like to file my statements somewhere besides on my computer so I still have to print them out, costing me more money for paper and — I get so much email my statements might get lost in the shuffle and I would miss payments.

I have one bill that I have taken out of my account and it is an old medical bill that is being handled by a company in Elk River. My paper statements never reflect my payment, just my balance going down. I wonder if my payments would show up on an electronic statement? Should I try it? I am old, I like to see my medical payments reflected on my actual billing statement.

I know the younger generation likes the ease of the statements being sent to their email. I have to watch carefully that I might miss an e-vite  to something because invitations are being sent electronically too. It is in the interest of time and saving paper.

However, saving paper reached new meaning to me when I attended a concert of one of my grandchildren at a cities school. There were no paper programs. To get a program you needed to use your phone and scan in the code that was posted in the lobby. Once you scanned in the code the program popped up on your cellphone. I am lucky I use my cellphone for codes and savings, so I had the proper app on my phone that would read the code. Many did not so they were not able to access a program. It wasn’t just old people like me who did not have access, but many parents didn’t either.

I pulled up the program on my cellphone, and I am not sure what it said because I didn’t read the entire thing. I thought I saw my granddaughter’s name on the program, but the printing was so small you could not read it. If you tried to swipe the screen to make it bigger you could possibly read one or two words at a time and scrolling to read that way was frustrating. The band teacher explained it was all in the interest of saving paper.

I like to read programs and know what is happening and what songs are being played during the concert. It was interesting because the program stated everyone should shut down their cellphones during the concert. If people complied they would not be able to read the program.

I love gadgets, apps and technology,  but I also still like my paper journals, paper grocery lists and paper to-do lists. If I think about it, many of my memories are documented on paper. As  I age I feel the anxiety of being locked out of the world because we older ones will not be able to understand or keep up with the electronic world.

It is possible many schools are going the no-paper route when it comes to programs. This is the first one I have encountered. I would love to hear from my readers their thoughts on going paperless with statements and especially with programs in schools. Am I in the minority? Have you encountered this? If you are older, what is getting harder for you because of the electronic age?

This Thanksgiving and Christmas season, are you going paperless with your cards? Pop me an email and let me know. This column will be posted on my blog Tuesday. The address is http://sprinklednotes.com. Oh, one more thing — I refuse to go paperless when it comes to Christmas presents. There are some things that are sacred, and Christmas wrap is one of them.

 

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at hermionyvidaliabooks@gmail.com. Her Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/julie.