With the phenomenal growth in the use of email, texts, smart phones, blogs, and other PC and technology orientated gadgets these days is it finally time to consign the pen to the dustbin.
Its not just “old fashioned” letter writing that has taken a huge hit. Simple, everyday things we used to use a pen for have are either in decline or have disappeared altogether. Consider the following:
- We no longer use a pen to sign credit card vouchers in store because paper vouchers have now been replaced with a Chip & PIN system.
- Hand written cheques are in terminal decline and the banks are keen to withdraw them altogether sighting alternatives like debit and credit cards, on-line backing and ATM’s as replacements
- Greeting cards can now be sent virtually over the web albeit they never seem quite as personal as a hand written card.
- Phone numbers are exchanged over networks and directly from phone to phone rather than being scribbled down and entered into a diary
- The emergence of small portable PC tablets and products like the iPad will eventually replace the notepad in meetings at work and ultimately at school.
- Deliver drivers and the postman now typically ask for an electronic signature onto a hand-held terminal rather than onto a paper sheet with a conventional pen.
These are just a few examples of how the use of the pen is declining in our everyday life. But, the reality is that pens are going to be with us for many years to come and realistically whilst the use of pens is in decline many of us still love the personal expression and simple pleasure of using a pen to write with. There are also circumstances where there is simply no substitute for pen and paper!
USB Pens
Pens have long been a favourite product within the promotional industry primarily because they are relatively cheap and they’re handy to have. But, even this product has been caught up with the onward march of technology. Today rather than give away a standard pen or perhaps a fountain pen many companies instead prefer to give-away USB pens. These are hybrid products that still look and function like a pen but they double up as a USB memory stick. Inside the barrel of the pen is a USB connector and a flash memory chip. This allows the USB pen to carry literally thousands of documents and images just like a conventional USB memory stick.
The USB pen is however likely to be just another small interim step on the path to the ultimate demise of the pen as we know it today.
