The other day, we were all sitting around celebrating Heritage Day and watching our eldest grand daughter with her new e-book. It seemed kind of neat and we were discussing what it would do. It appears it will do almost anything. Three books for $15, not bad!
However, not so good for those folks producing book grade paper. As a guy that spent 36 years in the newspaper business, I eventually brought the subject around to newspapers. It appears that it will also download newspapers! Now "what the heck", say I. How about just sitting back and reading a normal, black and white (with some colour) newspaper? Well it turns out she has never sat down and actually read a newspaper from start to finish! Never!
To me, this was mind boggling. To go through 17 years (well, I guess 10) years without reading a paper!
I was in shock! Fortunately, I am retired from the newspaper business, but here I am thinking about how this country was built on newsprint and newspapers. If you wanted to find out something, you grabbed a paper!
Now, you punch up some search words and out comes information overload!
Then, I got to thinking " When was the last time that I read a newspaper?" I used to buy the local paper, but found that there was only week old, non-relative items. I thought deeper and found out that I have not purchased a real, daily newspaper in over a year.
I have read newspapers that are left in A&W or Timmy's , but being frugal (read cheap) they were not ones that I bought.
All of a sudden, I felt like a dinosaur! OK, OK, rude comments will be censored out of this blog.
Now, how many of you that are far more technologically advanced than I am, still read a newspaper?
Why or why not?
I have daily newspaper delivery. It's delivered around 4:30AM, which is a lifesaver as I often wake up around 4. It's part of my daily morning ritual, and I am miserable without it. I supplement with online news, and it's great to access news from the UK and Germany online and such, but no electronic gadget will ever replace the feel (and smell) of newsprint. And (GASP) most of our local schools have newspapers delivered and some teachers still require students to peruse it, clip articles out, etc. If they disappear, I hope it isn't during my lifetime!
ReplyDeletetexwisgirl has left a new comment on your post "What is Going On?":
ReplyDeleteI actually subscribe to 3 of them here. Dallas Morning News (daily) and two local towns (weekly and bi-weekly). However, I do find I let the newspapers pile up for a week, then skim thru them quickly as I've already seen most of the headlines on the web. I'm going to discontinue the DMN when it runs out this year. Save us $380/yr or more...
I haven't read a newspaper in many years! Internet is so much faster AND you can read the e-news from across the world. How cool is that!
ReplyDeleteJust reading about all the riots going on in Egypt, pretty scary stuff if you tell me. I think our Someone maybe coming soon.
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I still love reading the newspaper. I like holding things in my hands. I delivered the newspaper from age 11 to 17 and my Dad retired from the San Jose Mercury News (Knight-Ritter. I am an old newspaper guy.
ReplyDeleteWe get the local newspaper on the weekends so we can keep up on local events. The local classified section still has value concerning farm items and general happenings. Plus, I like nothing better than sitting down to my Sunday morning coffee with the paper. On the other hand my e-reader allows me to enlarge the print to make book reading easier on my eyes.
ReplyDeleteI read the newspaper every day then tear out the crossword puzzle and sometimes the sudoko ... I'd really miss it.
ReplyDeleteI don't read the news paper very often anymore. I use to buy for the want ads,but theres nothing in there any more. I think news papers have about outlived their usefulness.Still I don't want to see their demise,because that would be the end of an era. Blessings jane
ReplyDeleteI read the paper almost every day. And because there's so much depressing news out in this big old world I always finish with the comics.
ReplyDeleteI have an iPad that I downloaded iBooks and the Kindle apps for. I have some books on there that I'm reading because they're cheaper than buying and I wasn't too sure how good they'd be. That said I far prefer and actual book with real paper.
I do read the news on the Internet, but I would prefer a newspaper. I especially like the big, fat weekend papers, read in my comfy chair with a cup of tea at hand - nothing better!
ReplyDeleteI read the newspaper every day. We don't have a tv (by choice) so it's how I get the news.
ReplyDeleteSomeone else blogged the other day about how they are going to stop teaching kids to write cursive in school. No point - now everyone types. Cursive will become obsolete at some point - one day you'll have to be specially trained to read it like heiroglyphics or something. This just blows my mind.
We still have our local news paper delivered on Sunday. Only because my wife likes to read the ads. I haven't read a news paper since I got my 1st computer back in 2000.
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