As print journalism continues its fall into the abyss of yesteryear while digital communications expand in demographic and sheer ability, the pursuit of understanding via the written word is becoming a novelty. Newspapers, while growing in online subscriptions for the dissemination of quick information, are becoming a lost physical product along with the greater sense of humanism they entail. The pastime of reading something tangible and infinitely mobile is soon to be left to the past. Current events and newsworthy information are losing the palette which developed the opinions of world citizens who learned of the sinking of the Titanic, the discovery of the Zimmermann Telegram, the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, and the uncovering of Watergate. The connectivity between reporter and reader is being reduced to an insipid working relationship between the liquid crystals, pixels, and light source in your computer’s monitor. While there is something glorious and inspirational to be found in the modern technologies at our disposal, their replacement of time old traditions is unsettling. All the news that’s fit to print is apparently now only fit to upload.

The modern communications revolution has allowed for an infectious spread of information and misinformation through a range of adaptive technologies. These technologies, of course, are dependent on the ever-increasing number of access points to signal reception. The installation of more satellite towers to support more expansive wireless coverage areas reflects the increase in usage of their services. Text messages are a firm-standing proponent of quick information and also the bane of the English language. While it would be childish to denounce the advances in communicative technology more readily available to us than even a couple years prior, it would be far more irresponsible to blindly accept them as liberators of informational ignorance. They, alongside their digital counterparts, allow for a dulling of attention spans and the bastardizing of rhetoric. The artistry of language and proper reasoning is diminished to a series of abbreviations and acronyms. Our hunger for quick information, though laudable in certain respects, often disregards the deeper story behind each event, satisfying itself by knowing only what has happened and not why it has happened.

There is something deeply historical and comforting about understanding the events that surround you by reading them on a sheet of pressed fibers. The American Dream, so often characterized by owning a suburban home outfitted with children and a loving wife as you read the newspaper with a cup of coffee and cigarette at hand, is becoming outdated on almost all fronts. The cigarette you smoke is harmful to both yourself and those around you and thus must be outlawed through aggressive, discriminatory taxation. The newspaper you read is the by-product of deforestation and thus must be replaced with a tablet pc or laptop. The very heart of 20th century America is soon to be disregarded as the pipe dreams of an archaic, obsolete generation. What many would call progression in today’s day and age, I would see more fit to label as regression–a step away from a more decent and formal time.

The depth of an article that rests inside the pages of a publication readily available at any gas station or supermarket is something far more valuable and daresay, time-worthy, than most endeavors to be taken while browsing headlines online. Though articles offer themselves in digital format for most newspapers and magazines, there is something lost in translation from paper and ink to cyberspace. Perhaps the feeling of the folded newspaper kept in tow as you go about your day’s activities is the only distinguishable difference between the words you may read at any bus stop or street corner and those limited by the mobility of hardware. The cool winter breeze brushes your face as you begin to unravel the crisp newsprint. Your eyes scan the rows of letters composed into familiar words that relay an infinite number of ideas and opinions. As you finish the last period and commit the article to memory before folding the layers of paper back up or closing the magazine’s cover you are more knowledgeable than you were two minutes ago. Reading in this manner truly is an experience.

For those with even the most benign of attention spans, taking the time to read the cover story that caught your eye as you walked past a stack of idle publications is worth the endeavor. The periodicals organized and distributed by your peers here on campus are no exception. If not for the efforts of Josh Boston in the November 24 issue of Visions would you have known of the controversial departure of one of the history departments’ long tenured and respected faculty members over ideological and political differences among co-workers? Would you have been aware of the ongoing struggle between your Student Association and The Spectrum concerning an increase in the newspapers’ budget and subsequent demand of SA staff members for more representation on their board of directors if not for the updates published by the editor in chief, herself? Newsworthy events applicable to undergraduate and graduate students alike are in a constant state of flux. As tantalizing as the writings of USA Today and the New York Times that riddle the university grounds may be, the works constructed by your peers that are printed on a regular basis are equally as important to a student who is not only aware but also both nationally and locally informed.

The eloquence of paper and the ink so often imprinted onto it will be sorely missed when the last independent publication closes its doors to its printing services. Although that day will certainly not arrive for years to come, it is far closer than some would have you believe. As tablet PC’s become more developed in mobility, capacity, and affordability so too will webpage hits begin to replace printed copy. The relay of information from author to audience will become increasingly less personal as the reporter is no longer able to hold a copy of the product that will be appreciated by his or her readers.