Wk. 6 - "How Millennials Get News" & "Why Digital Natives Prefer Reading In Print"

How Millennials Get News

I feel that there is a growing trend of bashing millennials and their lifestyle. It seems like people view this generation as lazy, uninformed, and entitled. I appreciate that this article pointed out that just because they aren’t getting their news traditionally doesn’t mean they aren’t getting news or aren’t interested in staying informed. Social media sites (mainly Facebook and Twitter) have made connecting easier as well as collaboratively sharing and disseminating news. It is easier to log onto your social media and get a stream of news, friend updates, game scores, political debate updates, and funny articles all at the same time.

Reading a newspaper is fine but it doesn’t offer the same updates and discussion that social media offers. A friend can post a news story on their page, which allows discussion to take place as well as sharing to other friends. This not only helps people who might not have seen the story stay updated but it allows people to see other opinions and thoughts on issues. Traditional media outlets don’t have this capability. It seems that millennials are interested in a continual conversation rather than just reading a story.

Why Digital Natives Prefer Reading In Print

I took an online political science class my sophomore year of college. I bought the online textbook because it was much cheaper as well as the neat “Find” feature of the digital version. This has probably been the only time I preferred a digital version of a book. The issue I struggle with concerning digital books is that the book is not physically real. If the Internet stopped existing, the digital device died, and my computer crashed the digital book wouldn’t exist. Print books would still exist (unless there’s a fire which would be terrible). I agree that other reasons why print books are superior is the feel, smell, and the ability to mark in the book.

Michio Kaku (author of The Future of the Mind) talks in his book about the caveman principle. This is the idea that after so many years since the caveman, humans still value face-to-face interactions and tangible values. I definitely think that this principle explains why we prefer print books over digital books.