The Local Paper

A staple at my grandparent’s house was the daily paper. I have great memories of grandma and grandpa sitting on the coach sharing the different sections and pointing out to each other what they found interesting.

Back then the internet wasn’t really a thing, cell phones didn’t exist, and looking back it felt like a much simpler time. Now everyone gets the news through notifications, social media, and friends. And they get it instantly.

This method has some downsides and the biggest is that it’s easy to stoke your outrage over something and then share your opinions furthering the outrage. It’s a vicious cycle.

A few weeks ago I decided to subscribe to the local paper. It was pretty inexpensive compared to the big national newspapers and my kids are loving the funny papers. There is something nostalgic about holding a real paper, not worrying about all the ads tracking you, having instant page loads, and just enjoying the simplicity of paper.

More importantly what I’ve noticed is you read everything the day after. It feels calmer and if you are honest that is the way it should be. Instant news is great in an emergency but for everything else, it’s not something you can directly control or act on so it should be passive.