Another Reason We Continue to Love the Printed Page

Submitted: The Two Sides Team April 16, 2019

Andrew Ferguson, a writer at The Atlantic, tried the “experiment” of returning to a printed newspaper, receiving the Wall Street Journal only through home delivery. Fetching and unfolding the paper become part of the many rituals that he says come from reading a “real newspaper.” Ferguson writes that on his “… phone or my laptop, I am beckoned incessantly to click on one link or another or still another … My newspaper could never be so noisy or presumptuous. It holds still.”

While he realizes that reading on paper versus reading on a screen has been studied by scientists, he feels that enjoyment of a printed newspaper may differ based on one’s personal history and experience. Among the benefits of reading the news in print, he feels that “…the world is held in place”. He writes: “My news on paper isn’t subject to updating until tomorrow morning.”

Read more of Ferguson’s article on TheAtlantic.com, “There’s No Substitute for Print: Some joys can’t be digitized.”