Unfortunately, there is no better teacher than experience. Those people will provide us with the experience and lessons needed to create a smarter society of consumers and a more carefully crafted set of laws to reduce abuse and exploitation. Paperless Illusion E-signatures can help control the amount of paper used in routine contracts, purchases, legal records, and record management. The hopes and plans for a paperless society are based on functionality, not psychology. Because of psychology and ergonomics, some form of paper or portable reading material will always be around.
People are more comfortable with the permanence and portability of paper for important documents.
Emotion overrides convenience. However, e-signatures can help reduce the number of paper documents. E-signature documents, in the form of standard agreements, can be reused endlessly and will facilitate the storage and retrieval of legal records and information. In other words, using e-signatures may help reduce the number of trees that are turned into paper, but it may multiply the number of words, agreements, and records that are stored electronically . . . and perhaps never read. Furthermore, the potential for misuse and exploitation exists with the automation of any process.