Anyone who reads a newspaper knows they’re harking back to the good old days. We’re accustomed to spending an eternal 19 seconds dislodging our phone from whatever pocket it’s in and thumbing our way to the answer to any question: Is bison tallow better than snail peptides for skin rejuvenation? Will spinach make my dog upchuck? What day is it?
Newspapers rely on soul, and electronics don’t have that. Yet.
The reason people read a newspaper is because they feel calm inside while they read. Private time absorbing words someone else wrote can comfort, inspire or inflame, but they register.
Retention after reading a newspaper is far higher than from scrolling and choosing among 1.3 billion websites – in the U.S., we check our phones once every 5 minutes on average.
Ninety-one percent of Americans own a smart phone. Fourteen- to 29-year-olds (Gen Z) are the heaviest users, almost 7 hours a day. Millennials are second; 42- to 55-year-olds are a shade under 4 hours; and baby boomers come in last. Using these stats means that an 18-year-old who lives to be 80 will spend about 20 of those years online.
Digital exhaustion was renamed electronic fatigue due to social media. One is chronic emotional depletion, the other is physical overload, causing eye strain and brain fog. Recently deceased actress Catherine O’Hara said that social media is a desperate attempt to try to control what others think of you.
Yet we’re addicted to the buzz of constant connection.
Smalltown newspapers reflect people you maybe know or know of. Local papers are supported by ads from home-owned businesses. Papers have crossword puzzles. They offer editorials that are calculated, occasionally surprising, and sometimes reasonable. Editorials toss verbal mud clods at misbehavior and can miss the boat, joke, point or target, but it’s already tossed, and you can’t delete an opinion in newsprint.
When local newspapers mess up, they ‘fess up. Humans answer the phone, are familiar with the situation, and will either apologize in print or suggest you’re off your rocker in the most bless your heart way. We sign our names to everything we print – no pseudonyms, no mystery.
Newspapers are the medium that reflects and soothes readers, not overwhelm their brains with word confetti and dancing dingos. Newspapers inspire readers to probe and cite the particulars, an achievement for reader and writer. Newspapers have useful information – who’s on the school board, who died, who’s the Rotary student of the month, who will mow your lawn and who is new to town but got here just in time to save us from ourselves.
Sometimes a new publication adds to the history and mystique of Eureka Springs, and we support that. We don’t feel other publications are competition – they’re enhancement and they provide readers with a choice. For instance, how many kinds of toothpaste are in a household? People have different needs – whitening, cavity control, sensitive teeth, tartar – and prefer a brand that satisfies that need.
Newspapers highlight people from other parts of the world who have done something good for our whole species, not just those who live in Carroll County, Arkansas. Sure, a local paper can interpret a world event and relate how it could impact us, right here, right now, but why? Are we feeling deprived of indigestion?
The internet’s focus is on simply reaching the largest concentration of readers, not necessarily informing them. People could be in their car looking at news or reading a text while eating a cheeseburger and steering a 4,000 lb. hunk of steel at 65 mph, but they’re considered reached. More users, more ads!
If you’ve read this far, you’re the choir. It’s time for the choir to take an extended bow and absorb hearty clapping. Four minutes! No phone! Just think, if we were a book there’d be no ads.
Also, newspapers are a great place to work. At least ours is.