In Praise of Paper and Ink

A couple days ago, I received an email informing me that I had a message in a special app called “ParentSquare”. In this special app—not in regular, low-tech email—the teacher had written an important message about my daughter’s schoolwork So, the email was a digital middleman that informed me of a message in a completely separate digital system. The email then repeated the contents of the app’s message anyways, making the separate app completely unnecessary. Confused? Me too.

You might wonder w...