How could printing be necessary -- today?

Many people wonder in this day and age why printing even matters. Isn't everything going to be digital? they ask.
Here is an apocryphal story. A 10 year old girl who would never read anything on paper, according to her father, spent hours one December morning researching where the best place would be to cut down a live christmas tree When she had finally picked out the best spot, she printed the website home page, and then she printed directions to the site.
The point is this: People print what is important.
Perhaps it's in our DNA. I make the analogy to painting. More than 150 years after the invention of photography, putting paint on canvas is still believed to be the most effective way to illustrate reality. Certainly the most valuable, as paintings regularly fetch prices way beyond their relative value before the invention of photography.
That's why printing is so important.