Newsprint

For many years I stepped outside my apartment to pick up the local newspaper in it's plastic bag. After pulling the paper from it's plastic cocoon I would survey the front page looking for news and pictures while consuming the contents a large cup of coffee never knowing which I would complete first, the coffee or the newspaper. Things have sure changed! No more do rolls of paper hit my door every morning. Without even thinking about it I open a Dell laptop computer every morning to read the daily news. I scan CNN, the New York Times, BBC News, ESPN and a lot of other web sites before I even get to my local newspaper's web site. Even though the Internet is the best thing to come along since sliced bread I can't deny I am a addict of the printed daily paper and still stop at the library several times a week for the sole purpose of reading the printed edition of the news. Yes I am an addict in more ways than one. I gave up Burbon only to replace it with Chocolate and gave up home delivery of the daily newspaper only to replace it with the electronic version.
People under 25 don't read the newspaper and don't see why anyone would waste a single minute with such a printed page. Their habit will be the demise of the daily printed newspaper. That's a demise that will surely come as regrettable as it might be. Someday and maybe sooner than we think, we will read a letter from the Editor stating this is the final issue, a regrettable concession to the economics of the newspaper business. I don't look forward to that day but I will not fight it either. The electronic version of the news certainly has it's advantages but it can't give me the feel of paper, the sound of pages turning or the smell of ink. So like any addiction, one only replaces one with another but with this replacement at least I won't feel bad about not recycling.