Can’t without some awareness and intent, that is. Forms seem on the surface like simply a way to collect information - a way that’s easier than alternatives for the person collecting the information. However forms are a user interface to an organization. And paper forms offer some important affordances that digital forms might not, in all cases, offer.

When we use paper forms:

  1. The form is a visible, physical reminder of a task we need to do.
  2. You can look over the whole form before you start. You can check if you have all the information or companion documents you’ll need. And you can decide whether you’ll fill it out at all!
  3. You can stop working on it and work on it more later.
  4. You can get someone else to fill it out, or fill out part of it.
  5. It’s easy to ask someone else to look it over, either to check and correct it or just to help understand or explain it.
  6. You can fill it out on behalf of someone else.
  7. A different person can sign it than the person who filled in the information.
  8. The information you write down never leaves your physical possession until you decide to give to a specific person for a specific purpose.
  9. The form itself is relatively safe while in transit if sent by mail. At the very least, tampering might be evident.
  10. They might offer more protection from being scammed. Because you have to take time to fill it out and then send it, there’s more time for you to reflect on whether the form’s requester is legit. And you probably got the form directly from a trustworthy source in the first place. I can’t think of a phishing scheme that uses paper forms.