The Joy of Print for a Digital Native

I have to be honest, before coming to Onyx I can’t remember the last time I bought a newspaper. This doesn’t mean I didn’t know what was going on in the world; when I had time I would read the newspapers my parents bought, but they were not my main source of news. My source was social media and news apps that I’d downloaded onto my phone. I know I am not alone in this as only a handful of my friends regularly buy newspapers. The fact that these news apps and social media platforms are available, highlights the need for new and fast paced ways of communicating the news.

Sites like Facebook have now copied Twitter in creating a ‘trending’ column where people can quickly see the top stories and headlines. BBC news have created alerts which give you quick summaries of breaking news on your home screen, so you don’t even have to open your phone to know the news stories. We are becoming accustomed to recording events and thoughts we experience in no more than 140 characters and are moving further from the traditional forms of broadcasting news.

My generation have grown up with the latest news immediately available. Before I joined Onyx, I questioned why I would ever buy a printed newspaper that is a day or more out- of-date? However, whilst interning for Onyx, I’ve been profiling newspapers and have really enjoyed my daily task. By reading the paper, you force yourself to focus on just reading the paper and to slow down. As innovative and great as the apps and websites are, they’re designed to be fast and accessible for the modern on-the-go person. I believe that my generation need to re-engage with newspapers and discover, as I have, that there is something to be said for the tradition of stopping and reading the paper. I believe it would be a sad day when I sit on my commute and hear the tapping and buzzing of phones, rather than the shuffle of newspaper pages.