I have considered the same thing, and it's true for me too. Take your office, for instance: I don't use folders, everything is on the computer. Same for photos and albums, I don't need to store those, or CDs, LPs and the like. I have lots of shelf space and closet space to spare.

It took me some time to "back port" the concepts I know to the situation my colleagues grew up in: they got memo's in in- and outboxes, they read, copied and replied to stuff that went in folders on a shelf, and projects contained physical snipplets from newspapers, photograps and typed files to review. (Thank Mad Men for my insight here.) These went into filing cabinets alfabetized.

I can hardly imagine the inefficiency!