Time After Time
The analog antidote to my over-digitized life
The ability to have a shower curtain delivered by Amazon in under twenty-four hours is a recent development, relatively speaking. But the ability to have a printed copy of the latest news delivered to your doorstep, with articles written just hours ago, is not very recent at all, in fact. Home delivery of the print newspaper began decades ago, and it remains available today. For those unfamiliar with the concept, it works in a refreshingly simple yet effective manner: early each morning, a van loaded with printed copies of The New York Times, bundled in tidy sleeves, drives along a set route. In front of each subscriber’s home, the delivery person tosses one of these bundles on the doorstep. My paper usually lands outside my apartment building around 4 a.m. Sometimes my apartment number is scribbled on the sleeve, but usually not—I’m the only person in my building to receive the print newspaper. Each morning, I head downstairs to pick up my paper and leaf through it as I eat breakfast, reading more of it again over lunch and then over dinner in the evening.
Receiving and reading the print newspaper is a habit from my parents’ home, where there is always a stack of papers on the dining room table. It’s an analog tradition that stands out in my otherwise very digital way of life. I’m a computational modeler, so much of my work takes place on a screen, and many of the daily transactions of both my personal and professional lives are digitized (email, Zoom, QR codes, tap-to-pay). With so many functions now on a screen, I appreciate any chance to step away and engage with the physical, tangible world.
There is a tactile pleasure to reading the news in a print format, and it exposes me to stories I would never otherwise click on or be served by an algorithm. I enjoy being able to turn the pages to scan the latest headlines, stopping to read certain stories in greater depth. On a screen, I have to expend mental effort to remain focused on the article at hand, given that there are numerous distractions (open tabs, an active comments section, flashing video advertisements) all fighting for my attention. On top of that, the articles recommended to me online are usually based on my reading history, giving me a warped view of the overall news. With the print paper, there are many stories that I come across only because they are there in front of me, and these stories often prove to really pique my interest. While the stories in the print paper are curated to reflect the outlet’s target audience, they are not tailored to me specifically. (Some people even subscribe to multiple papers, in order to see the points of view of different media outlets.) In this way, rather than solely serving me stories about my own unique interests, the printed paper makes me better informed about the issues that matter to society at large. It serves as the antithesis to a personalized news feed.
I’m hopeful that the print newspaper will experience a retro revival among my generation, similar to that for vinyl records. Just as some members of my generation, Gen Z, have come to appreciate the analog experience and superior sound offered by lowering the groove into an album on a turntable, I hope Gen Z might come to value the joy of the inked pages of a printed paper and the exposure to a greater variety of stories it offers. There are many news outlets that offer home delivery (including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Wall Street Journal) and multiple schedules available. I get the paper delivered every day, but there are options for just Monday-Friday, Friday-Sunday, or only Sunday. I encourage anyone who is feeling digital fatigue to try a subscription to a printed paper. Consider canceling a subscription to some digital platform or other, and have your news delivered to you each morning in a neat bundle. You may find that it frees some mental bandwidth and expands your point of view, serving as a welcome respite from the daily screens.
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