I love to read. A time-honored tradition in my home growing up was reading the San Jose Mercury News daily newspaper. I watched my parents do it and enjoyed reading it to stay abreast of current news. This habit branched into a love for reading short stories from the Reader’s Digest Magazine and Condensed Books. I still enjoy pleasure reading and staying current about the news. As I examined my daily media habits today, none of my choices involve the printed newspaper. Nowadays I used various aggregator tools such as Google Reader, FlipBoard and online newspapers such as the Columbian, USA Today and various customized news sources to stay up to date. On my drives around town I listen to music and National Public Radio. I also enjoy reading various excerpts from the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, news magazines and online regional business journals. As a bit of a news junkie, I will read catch up on news excerpts or breaking news on my iPad or iPhone from sources such as the NY Times, Yahoo! and more. When I watched this video about a baby mistaking a magazine for an iPad, I laughed out loud.
Then I wondered, what are young people reading, if anything, today? This recent survey gave me some hope that Millenials, in particular are still engaged. See here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/gofigure/2012/05/02/151547286/millennials-and-print-newspapers-a-surprising-story
This made me think about what my own children are learning from my example. They don’t see me read a printed newspaper or magazine. Do they wonder if I’m playing games on my electronic devices? If the perception (or reality) is that “you are what you eat,” can it be true that “you are what you read?” In an election year (and soon-t0-be-aired Summer Olympics), it seems to me that people are more engaged. It makes me realize the power of PR to influence the media and what we hear, watch and read. Where do you get your news?
Piggyback PR 
First off I think that this video is very funny and very true to an extent. I have four year old son and he thinks that everything is touch screen too. His first reaction to any electronic device is to touch the screen, when it doesn’t work he figures it out the other way. I get my news from various sources, but usually online. I visit local news sites for local news, and read yahoo news often as well. I don’t have any selected sources just depends on what I am looking for that day.
I thought this video was pretty funny too. My best friend’s 6 year old son is the same way, we’ll just hand him the cell phone and he knows how to turn on Spongebob or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I think it’s great that kids are learning technology at a young age because they can’t avoid it in their future.
I like getting my news online as well. I’ve realized that the main reason for this is because I only see the headlines online and can choose to click on it and read it if I want to. We have an Oregonian everyday in our breakroom at work and anytime I read it, it’s nothing but depressing sad stories that remind me why I don’t read the Oregonian. My favorite sites to get news are msnbc.com and I also like news.discovery.com
This video made me laugh. I think it is absolutely true. My cousin’s baby knew how to work an I phone before he was even able to talk. Now days more and more kids are growing up playing with phones and I Pads versus dolls and cars.
I’m sure the kids are learning from parents, siblings and other adults. Actually, at work I get the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. However, I don’t look at the newspaper and prefer to look on the computer instead. I find it more convenient.
I agree with the convenience of news online. This is how I primarily get my news as well – I have an app on my iPhone for NPR and MSNBC, and like the ease of touch to filter subjects from top headline stories to sports. I also like that I can catch up on some news when I have a free few minutes, regardless of where I may be. However, my parents still get a print version of the Columbian and I enjoy reading this when I’m there on the weekend. But with many print newspapers scaling down their newspaper, it almost forces us to go online to see more stories.
It is funny how tech savvy babies and toddlers are becoming – it’s ironic because today at work, my older co-workers were giving me a hard time about only knowing a work world that is very tech advanced. In particular, they were joking that they were around before the internet, and how that is becoming such an unheard of idea now.
I also find reading online convenient. I find myself lacking a lot of time especially with school and work so I don’t have a lot of time to sit down, open a newspaper, and read it. I’ll pull up websites, etc. to get a glance of what’s going on. My brother and sister-in-law have a 10 month old and they are doing what they can to ensure he gets as much exposure to books as possible. I think that is important for him to see and be exposed to – the internet isn’t going anywhere. He’ll have plenty of time to learn all about it.
Too Funny and how amazing it is the effect technology can have at such a young age. Anyhow, a majority of the news I find today is found digitally. Furthermore, a significant portion of the articles I read are found on my Twitter feed. I tend to follow a lot of professionals in the Advertising industry who share most of the interesting articles I find. Rather than filtering through the mass of online print, I just let everyone else do the hard work.
It is very amazing! I can remember my godson being like 3 years old and picking up my phone and figuring out how to get to my music and games. I think the more technology advances and becomes a part of all of our lives, the moer small children will pick up these skills at an early age. The more they see adults using and integrating technology into their daily lives, they more they will become accustomed to it.
From a ecological perspective, it is good that we are using less paper. It is extremely wasteful to print thousands of newspapers daily, and throw them away when we have more efficient means of reporting.
I still enjoy reading the Oregonian. For me, there is just something about have a physical paper in my hands that causes me to better digest the information. When reading a news article online I often glaze over the information quickly or miss key details. I also sometimes form an opinion of the information based on the user comments of the story instead of forming my own. Reading too much online also tends to hurt my eyes for some reason.
I agree with Dale on reading online and get irriated eyes. For me, I’d rather buy the textbook then reading on etext. I just can’t sit down for a long period of time and read from the computer screen.
I know a lot of people who still really like to have the physical paper in hand when they read it. It’s old-fashioned and timeless. I agree Dale.
This technology is so ubiquitous, even a 60 year old men – my roommate – tries to pinch and zoom on my laptop, something that he’s supposed to know is not going to work like a touch screen..haha.
I usually get my news from the Internet, I think I only read newspapers or magazines when I take the train or the plane. But now even in the air you have access to wifi.
Very interesting, with the shift towards electronic media perspectives on what people are doing are going to change as well; you can tell that when someones reading a physical newspaper that they are indeed reading a news paper… but when someones on a lap top it makes us questions what they are actually doing… even if they are just reading the news. I still get The Oregonion delivered to my house so we are still “old school”… online news offers too many options and too many distractions so I say away from online publishers.
I think that’s an interesting comment that you bring up. Reading the newspaper does make us look smarter. Being on a laptop waiting for something makes us look impatient, while reading the newspaper makes us look relaxed and enjoying ourselves. Never thought of that.
Wow. That’s pretty interesting. I will say that I read a magazine or two every now and then, as well as Ad Age. I think there is something about real paper that makes reading much more enjoyable. Reading on the internet or tablet is proven to be stressful on our eyes, and I know that if I am on my computer reading too long, my eyes start to hurt and they get red.
I don’t think paper will ever fully go away based on that reason. Its less stressful, and its kind of a good thing sometimes to have something in front of you with 15 articles rather than the 100 billion articles online.
My cousin who is 1.5 years old know how to plays games on an Iphone before he could even talk. The digital media industry has increased a lots over the year and created an disadvantage position for printed media within the industry.
Even though in term of interaction and opinions, digital media allows people to be more connected in a shorter period of time, and allows people to reach to others from places that we would not able to with traditional printed media.
That doesn’t mean printed media will no longer exist in any near future day since it has its special meaning, form of education. connecting people together. The smell of papers, an meaning of an old book receive by the poor, an education for people who do not have access to technology and electronic devices like us
Most of the news I read are through online. The only time that I read the newspaper is when I am at work. I believe that in the coming years, there might be no newspapers around anymore. With the generation millenials becoming in their twenties and thirties, the online will be a huge factor in their daily life. The digital media will be huge for them. I could remember the sustainability class for my senior capstone that I took a while ago. One of the assignment that the class did was to not use cellphones, computer and along with television for a week. I could remember that I didn’t last very long. It is very hard to disconnect yourself from cellphones, internet and television.
This video is cute, funny and scary at the same time. It amazes me that so many toddlers and young children are accustomed to technology. We all know that technology has glitches and wierd things can happen….if oneday something happened with all of this online and cyber information, will the younger generation know how to access information. Furthermore if technology takes over and eventually crashes, will we still be able to get information? Hopefully all the print sources arent out of business..lol! I usually get my infor from yahoo! or local news websites. From time to time i will read a newspaper or news magazine.
Super adorable video! I was honestly surprised by the statistics from the npr article. I personally don’t read printed newspapers – all digital for me. I don’t know many of my friends who reads their news by paper either. I think that you are right that the next generation is going to be even more effected by this stereotype than mine.