Tag: News Page 4 of 5

Things are changing around here.

I won’t be getting a Sunday paper anymore.

Newspaper subscription price hikes are just a way for publishers to try and keep something around that is no longer relevant nor popular among the masses.

I remember when I read three newspapers every day growing up in New York; that was the way we got our daily news.

Sure, we watched the news on TV, but aside from some morning shows that sprinkled in news stories when they had to, most of our TV news was viewed in the evenings.

People who worked relied on newspapers to know what was going on and then watched the TV news after they were home at the end of the day.

Radio is another communication medium that is mostly surviving with a dwindling, older demographic.

Entertainment on demand, as the news and most things we demand, happens when we want it to.

We are bombarded with stories at any given time we choose to stream or watch them online.

People are cutting the cord in record numbers and for good reason–cable, satellite and DSL companies are charging too much for their programming.

If you have an Internet connection and a device that can utilize it, you don’t need DirecTV unless you want their exclusive and expensive NFL Sunday Ticket.

Cord cutters who are not going back to cable of any kind any time soon understand that when they committed to leaving the likes of big TV service providers, they did so with the realization they would lack in some of the programming they were paying hundreds of dollars a month for previously.

We’re a nation of watchers and so, to me, like bottled water, it was only a matter of time before we stopped caring about the price only to make it the reason for our abandoning it.

I remember when watching TV was free.

It was a beautiful concept. You saved your hard-earned cash to purchase a television set. And that was it. There was nothing else you had to pay for other than monthly electricity bills the power company sent you.

I know that’s hard to believe for some of the youngsters. But believe you, me, it was truth!

I’ve seen a lot. But people older than me have seen even more.

Speaking of more, I believe that is the issue at the crux of all issues. We’ve been told for a long time now that more is better. Less is not so good.

We always crave more, more, more.

Would you be able to go back to only 30 or 40 channels of TV and be happy?

You’ve got thousands now and the last time I checked by taking informal surveys of people I know, no one is really overall satisfied with their paid television entertainment choices.

I suppose it comes down to perspective.

I always urge young people to travel as often as they can. I suggest it’s good to avoid the touristy places and find destinations that take you completely out of everything that it is you know and think you love.

Having a chance to see how those less fortunate than you are living, is always a humbling experience. You can’t help but appreciate what you have more than ever if you get to experience, or at least see how people who are living day-to-day think about what it is to have a good day.

I made time to read three newspapers as a boy and it made me feel informed about important matters and current events happening around me and throughout the world. Celebrities were confined to the smallish entertainment section and did not comprise the bulk of hard news sections like they do today.

Finding better ways of becoming informed is never a bad thing. And so that’s why it makes sense to abandon an expensive newspaper subscription–especially when the actual size (read thickness) of the paper resembles dental floss–hardly a value or a reason to support “journalism.”

So, watch what you want. More people like to watch video than read. I get it. Moving pictures. They’re an escape.

Except when it’s the news.

We don’t want to watch that.