An Old World Feeling

Late last year, Newsweek, one of the most recognizable publications in the world, printed its very last physical issue. Future issues of the publication would now be all-digital, made specifically for tablets and phones for easy access. I remember how in my high school years I would sometimes spend my free time at the library, and read copies of Time, Newsweek and local broadsheets, and it has just occurred to me that maybe in a few years, I’ll only get to read these with a laptop and an internet connection. I remember flipping through those rough pages with that distinct, rustic scent, moving from one article to the next, and fully engrossed in what I was reading which was enough to make me oblivious to the world around me. That was several years ago.

Today, we’re in a different world. The fast-paced lifestyle of contemporary man has forced methods of the past to either conform to the change, or die out. It seems that the publishing industry is on track doing both, specifically the newspaper. Newspaper sales have been down. Major publications have been jumping ship from their physical counterparts and are now making do in the web. I myself haven’t read a newspaper in the past month, even my after-Sunday mass family tradition of reading the newspaper before lunch seems all but dead. The public demands information by the second, and to many, newspapers simply just can’t fulfill that purpose anymore. Newspapers may die out in a few years, but I’d still gladly read one over an internet article any day. Why? Nostalgia? Well not really, and while it’s one reason, it’s something else entirely, something more simple and primal.

The beauty of the newspaper that an internet publication can never have is this: the pleasant surprise. You use the internet to look for something, to search for something specific, something you intend to read or find about. There is that premeditated thought influencing your actions on the web. That isn’t the case with the newspaper. One moment, you may be reading about the local news, next, your reading about a feel-good sports story that you found on the right bottom corner of the page. That’s the beauty. That’s the spirit of randomness and spontaneity involved in experiencing a newspaper. You didn’t intend to read about that certain thing, but you find yourself amused and satisfied by reading it nonetheless. An internet article is just there, on your screen. That link will only bring you to what the link contains. Nothing more.

Another thing the newspaper brings to the table is peace, peace in the sense that it’s just you, your chair, and the newspaper, nothing more, nothing less. You really get into what you read and gain the greatest satisfaction from it. Time takes a backseat and before you know it, you’ve spent hours reading it from end to end, your fingers a tad grainy from the ink.  An internet article brings too many distractions. Ads pop out. You tend to click links that prevent yourself from even finishing what you were reading in the first place. What happened to learning and gaining something from what you read? At this point, it’s all superficial now. The main thing is, newspapers provide that moment of stillness, a break if you will, before moving on to the daily scramble that is life. 

I could name several other reasons as to why newspapers will always hold a special place for me, but those two had to be the most important. That unspoken tradition after Sunday mass looking for loose change in my pocket to buy a broadsheet from a vendor in the street for my parents may now only exist in memory, but newspapers, 5, 10, 30, or 40 years from now will always find its place on my shelf. It’s an old-world feeling struggling to survive in new-age ideals.