I think it’d look something like this:
50 years: Textbooks mostly gone from schools in many developed countries. Paper might be used occasionally when tech isn’t working, but teaching will be done mostly on computers or tablets. Most kids will have “ugly” handwriting because of they rarely write. The devices kids use to learn might be provided by the school, or some schools school might require kids to bring their own as part of a back to school supplies list.
In the adult world, paper will be mostly gone except like militaries or certain government agencies where secrecy is important. Certain jobs where there are safety procedures to be followed will still have paper instruction manuals.
For the average person’s home, there will be no paper except perhaps a small amount of people who still carry cash. Privacy-concious people will still write on paper. Everyone else just use their phone notes app.
In developing/undeveloped countries, they will be mostly the same but lagged behind developed countries like 30 years.
100 years: Paper is near extinct. Schools no longer have paper except one or two packs of printer paper in the main office probably for redundancy. Tech mostly don’t fail anymore, so any paper probably has been sitting on a shelf somewhere for many years. There would be very few amount of paper left in the world. For security sensitive purposes, air-gapped tablets will replace paper.
From this point on, humanity will move towards a future without paper.
But that’s just my prediction, what do you think?
I don’t think its digital handwriting replacing paper handwriting, it will just be typing. Writing takes more energy and we humans are lazy. I’ll bet most kids in schools rather type their homework rather than write it. I know from experience.
On the other hand, taking notes with a lot of equations is cumbersome with a computer, and straightforward with paper and pen. I also can’t do any serious maths without paper, e.g. playing with equations. It flows naturally with pen and paper, it is just horrible with a computer, unless you actually defer the equation solving to the computer using dedicated symbolic math software which is very useful, but that’s not always what you want to do.
I am not sure about this. I talk basis on my personal experience, but typing is write things you listen. Handwriting implies listen, summarise and write (you are slower than conversation so you need make a just in time summary). Also handwriting is not only write text, I usually add non textual information like draw schemas, symbols, complex formulas, link with lines… implies a mental work that typing hasn’t it