Say Goodbye to Print Media the Internet Is Here

Print Media: A Relic in the Digital Age The Digital Age has arrived and it has essentially confined to the dust bin of history the print media. This is evident from the closure of book stores that Barnes & Noble that once thrived. With more and more people turning to the Internet for their daily dose of information, reading, news, and video, there is less need for books, bookshelves, or the dust that goes with them.

For one thing, print media has become impractical as a result of the Digital Revolution; for another, digital media can be transferred and shared much more quickly and more efficiently than print media could ever dream of doing (Eadie, 2009). Therefore, this paper will show why the Digital Age of media is here to stay (so long as the power flows) and print media will be kept around only as a relic of the past.

Books may still be nice for some, who prefer reading the page rather than the Tablet -- but the fact remains that one can store an untold amount of literature on a laptop, iPad, or Tablet, whereas a reader of print media is limited to as many copies as he stuff in a backpack. This means that Digital media has made it easier for information to be spread around the world, easier for it to be transferred, and easier for it to be consumed.

Books may be nice for some place like the beach when one is on vacation, but the reality is that in the workaday world, the Digital Age is far more efficient in using digital technology and media to convey what print media (by comparison) is so slow at reproducing. In other words, in today's world, news travels fast, which puts newspapers out of business except for people who aren't plugged in, don't want to be plugged in, and have no need for instantaneous information.

The rest of the world, however, does. Jobs are on the line, social media is the new go-to source for up to the minute access to info, and data is being created, stored and sent out via links for persons involved in economics, politics, and social organizing. In short, there is no time to wait for print media to tell us what is happening. The world has sped up thanks to Digital media and it is not going to slow down until the electric goes out.

And there are no signs of that happening in the immediate future. For that reason, books may be a thing of the past except as novelties in the future. It may be quaint to sit down with a book from time to time, or to keep a shelf or two in one's home that stores the books of the past -- a few classics, perhaps; or something from the latest hot author. But that will be it. Digital culture has revolutionized the way we think, operate and interact.

The publishing industry is already taking note as a result: Amazon allows users to publish themselves online -- something that was unheard of in print media times. Now, anyone can be an author -- a blogger, a journalist, a novelist: the technology allows everyone to be what print media never let them be. In conclusion, print media is going the way of the dinosaur because a new age.