While my home is filled with multiple laptops, smartphones, tablets and other Internet-connected devices, there isn’t a single pen to be found. No ballpoint, fountain or rollerball. No highlighter, marker or even an itty bitty nub of a pencil.

Rumors of the pen’s demise have been around for almost two decades. The PalmPilot and early tablets were supposed to finish it off, replacing it with a pen look-alike called the “stylus.” That fake plastic thing proved to be slower and more expensive, however, so the pen lived to scribble another day.

But for me, the pen has finally lost its usefulness to the finger and the touch screens it controls.

Unlike pens, fingers don’t run out of ink, they’re free and you always have one with you. I use mine to take notes on my phone, highlight books on my Kindle and draw pictures on my iPad. I don’t have to worry about losing this work because, unlike a piece of paper, my digital notes live in perpetuity online.

Until recently, financial transactions were among the last holdouts for the pen. But these days I pay my utility bills by opening an app and signing a screen. When I go to my local coffee shop, I sign an iPad with my finger. Theory, Apple and dozens of businesses I interact with have all eliminated pens (and styluses) in lieu of a finger and a screen. And, a couple of months ago when I bought a new home, I signed every document but one (which needed a notary public) using my iPhone. Think about that: I bought an entire house on my smartphone.

While I loved pens in the past, I have to admit, it’s a lot easier not using them.

“There’s that famous quote that the best camera is the one you have with you, and in that respect, the smartphone has won out over time,” said Naveen Selvadurai, a partner at Expa Capital and a co-founder of Foursquare. “In the same sense, the best pen is the one you have with you, and that’s your finger.”