Hot Off The Press

Photo By Dorit Beller De-Beer

The sounds of the heavy steps rushing up and down in the building's stairwell would alway startle me. I'd quickly fall back asleep and forget about it. Later when I woke up I would open the door, and there it laid, that crisp brand new newspaper. 

Every day without fail this managed give me that little ting of exciting joy 'oh what interesting piece of news will I discover today'. It held a sense of promise. 

Never mind that on some occasions I was lucky enough to be part of the team that helped bring the newspaper to life, translating away foreign news items that would hit the AP or Reuters feed (and this pre facebook age mind you). 

Newspapers are exciting and I forgot how much they are. 

Recently with the new political atmosphere we made a decision, we need to go back and become more media literate, know our facts, dig deeper to a story. Prompt our kids to see headlines, ask questions, expose them beyond the sheltered world which they are so so privilege to live in. Quest beyond a feed. 

That is starting to happen, but I also noticed some other things happen. 

I noticed how mono-news-feed assaulted we are, how the structure of a broadsheet paper allows you to physically pick and chose what and how much you want to read. How shallow our news feeds have become, how hard it is to sit and actually read through a whole article of more than 200 words. How limiting it is to our thought process when the news feed is algorithm curated to you, without the freedom of accidental diversion from a set path. The sense of adventure is lost, and with it the joy of discovery. Something very crucial to humans is slowly extinguishing, the deep sense of curiosity that drives us to challenge what is around us, and create new things that have deeper meaning. 

I was reminded how having limited physical space, as you do with printed matter, makes for better higher quality writing, that content put into print creates a bigger commitment to the subject matter. 

Same as with literal spaces, the more constraints one has the more accurate and thoughtful the design of that space will be. That sometimes less is more. 

And that I still have that small ting of excitement in me to see what the front page headline would be. That I like stepping outside in the cold for just a second to grab the paper, smell the crisp air, pause and readjust my new/old found rhythm to a start of a new day.