I have a color laser jet printer. It works. I printed something recently. But honestly, I almost never need to print. Back when I bought it it was quite expensive and I used it nearly daily. I think it’s close to 10 yrs old now.
I don’t tend to receive faxes, but I’ve had to fax things—yes, mostly medical stuff. It’s similar to the situation you mentioned where you have either use a paper form or fax. It’s not super common—usually most places will take an email instead (e.g. requesting an absentee ballot), or even actually have an online form.
And, frankly, I prefer it that way. Part of why I stopped needing to print was that I would fill out any form electronically if it was sent to me electronically. I love how digital lets me keep everything without worrying about damage—since I have everything backed up. If something isn’t digital or used every day, I’d probably lose it or forget about it. It’s why I would get digital copies of even my paper photos back in the day.
Edit: not used to having to type three hyphens for an em dash
If by “don’t have that kind of faith” you mean you wanted a paper backup in case your phone died, remember you do still always have the option of printing your boarding passes at the airport. Even if your phone dies, gets lost/stolen, or some such thing after you’re through security, I am certain if you go the the gate agent and explain what happened and show some ID they can print a new boarding pass for you. So I am content just having my boarding pass on my phone knowing that it can still be printed at the airport if something happens to my phone.
Surprisingly,the same model is still available at Office Depot as their cheapest laser printer, but for $99 now. I checked my emails and looks like I actually got it in 2015, not 2012, as a refurb.
True. Just pointing out that older folks tend to hold on more to paper because it’s how we grew up…younger ones probably don’t much. I’m still trying to figure how they pay by touching (?) their phone but I’d never trust it to be secure. 
Once I had a short connection and managed to erase my electronic boarding pass on my phone while I was at the connecting airport. I really had to scramble to get it replaced and not miss my flight. So I’m wary of them now.
I hate spending time in airports, so I pretty much always have a short connection, even when my “connection” is from my car to the gate. Yeah, I like bringing a paper copy with me. I also find the paper scans a little faster than the phone—positioning the phone just right is a little fussy. And the guy who decides whether to let you into the “TSA Pre” gate reads the paper faster than he reads your phone, too. So I alway bring both an electronic and a paper boarding pass, but I usually end up using the paper one.
Rarely, when the hotel business center is crowded or their printer is broken or something, I just have the electronic copy going home, but in that case I try to leave an extra 10 minutes to print one at the airport.
This coupon specifically said it had to be printed. I just recently started getting emails from them. I always got the coupon book in the mail or a a page from a magazine.
Yes, sometimes they do. My guess is that maybe it’s so the cashier can put the paper in the drawer and remit it to a manufacturer. I’ve also seen those extreme couponing folks…they may wish to deter them.
It’s far far more secure than handing your plastic card to the cashier. And far more secure than sliding your magstripe through a reader. It’s slightly more secure than inserting your chipped card into the reader. And it’s slightly more secure than tapping your RFID card on the reader.
Yes, but sparingly. In fact, it’s an old HP 1020 Black laser printer. I get 5 toner cartridges for $75 on line. They last me 5 years.
I’ll take your word for it—I really don’t know and I’ll own my ignorance on that. We have a chipped card for most purchases.
And all of these are FAR more secure than a printed check.
Of course, “security” has various dimensions. The risk of a third party intercepting your payment-by-phone is very small. But I am more worried about losing my phone than about losing my credit cards. After all, I never leave my credit cards unattended in the corner of a room to recharge. And I don’t want to be typing a “hard” password every time my phone falls asleep, so my password is one that could be broken with patience, I suppose. For these reasons, I have limited the vendors that can be paid with my phone.
And I’m in the US – my liability, should someone hack or steal my credit cards, is limited to $50. I funnel almost all of my electronic payment through a credit card, and I have no fear of using a credit card for routine purchases.
I do not and would not own an inkjet printer personally, but I do have a couple at work to print label art directly onto printable DVDs.
I have a work laser printer (HP1200) at home that I can plug up if I need to print something at home for whatever reason. That has only happened once that I can recall.
Not to be a smart ass here, (and sorry for the hijack) but you seem to be intentionally adding 10 minutes to your hated time at the airport to avoid a few seconds it might take to read TSA-Pre on your phone. If I’m understanding you correctly.
No, I usually print the boarding pass before I leave for the airport.
I like to have hardcopy because I, too, have had connectivity issues at the gate and if I’m not careful to make sure the boarding pass is sitting there before I get to the gate, sometimes it’s hard to pull it up. An added advantage is that it’s read faster, both by people and by machines, so if I have both in hand I use the paper version.
Topic made me chuckle. My 90+ mom was upset because her printer (at the retirement home) wouldn’t print, and I asked her why it was so urgent to her.
"Well, because whenever any of us see something cute on the internet, we print it out and pass it around to our friends! Don’t you?’
At that age about 1/3rd of them are internet glurge addicts and the other 2/3rds are totally computer non-users. My aged MIL is in group #1 and yes, she gets through a lot of ink & paper supporting her retinue of group #2 folks.
Plus of course the scarcity mentality. If I find it (whatever “it” is), I need to somehow save it because I’ll never be able to find it again. In MIL’s case she 100% cannot find files or shortcuts she saves somewhere in her PC’s folder tree; filed in there === gone forever. She can only 20% (at best) find things she prints and files in her ever-growing pile of snippets of papers. But that extra 20% is joyful.
They’re just big wrinkly kids! Whaddayagonnado?!
We’ve got a Brother HL-2170W black-and-white laser printer. I just looked up the purchase order online, and it’s over ten years old now; I bought it in January 2010. It’s probably on its third toner cartridge in that time. It has been great, and absolutely worth the money.
We can sometimes go a few weeks or more without printing anything at all, and at other times it gets used quite frequently. My wife tends to print a lot more than I do. She periodically sells stuff on eBay, and needs to print shipping labels and invoices. She also, when she writes, prefers to print out her drafts and edit by hand, while I’m generally happy to edit on the computer.
But cost is not just about productivity, narrowly defined, and convenience is worth a lot to busy people. You know what I can do in the half-hour that I don’t need to go to the library or Kinkos? I can go for a walk, or have a cup of tea with my wife, or read a book, or watch TV, or post on the Dope. All of that is worth something to me, even if it’s not productive in the sense of actually getting my paid work accomplished.
My wife and I are not rich , but we’re both employed in professional jobs, and the convenience of having a printer at home has been worth far, far more to us–in time, convenience, and money–than the less-than-$300 we have paid out to purchase the printer ($99), two additional toner cartridges (about $60 each), and paper (maybe four or five reams, at about $7-10 each).
Exactly. To think about this is an age related thing is totally missing the point. Anyone with a career and and hobbies and an active social life would intuitively understand this.