Paperless society

I got this from my daily serving of Word-a-Day from Wordsmith; and it arrived just when the prediction of the demise of newspaper in the next 20 years (or even earlier)--granted that the number of newspaper readers consistently nosedives in the coming months—sparked debates in the IT community and newspaper industry.

“As for me, paper books still work. They never run out of battery; they're readable even if soaked in the rain; they still work after a hard drop on the floor; rewind and fast forward are intuitive. And they are not as attractive to thieves.”

Amando Doronila’s Analysis last week titled: Are the days of newspaper numbered? piqued the interest of many readers. So, is the day of the death of newspaper really just years away?

When I read the article, I initially thought of the joke on Pugad Baboy comic strip where the son prefers reading his news on the Internet while dad still chooses the old-fashioned “paper.” The son rattles off the benefits of news online. Then the power went off. The dad was amused because he has an edge over his son and also mentions something like “you can’t bring your PC in the bathroom.” Then I realized that the joke is no longer applicable now because of the advent of pocket PC, XDs, Treo, and BlackBerry--you can still read your news in the bathroom, alright.

It’s hard to let go of something very traditional but life evolves and we have to keep with the times. If ever this comes true many people will be affected. Perhaps, writers and reporters will not be greatly affected by this change but they still have to do some studying because I think online writing is different from the usual writing (I don’t know what the difference is, just read it somewhere.) As Doronila said in a follow-up column two days later, it’s only the medium that will change; there’d be no online news if there’d be no writers. (Duh…)

This post by Joey Alarilla explains it all. Of course, I still prefer the old-fashioned way of reading my news, but technology is dictating the way people live nowadays. As for the books, I’m still quite confident that it will not happen so soon judging by the bulk of paper books (God, before it’s just “book” now it has to be either paper book or ebook) being sold in bookstores. And there’s nothing like the smell of a newly-printed paper book ;)