Newspapers: Culture, Physical, Retention....Then Pass It On

 Over the last twenty years the newspaper box began its descent into becoming an endangered species. The colorful boxes, usually chained to a pole, were being removed or left to die a slow death by rusting away and being filled with garbage. The end was easy to see coming with most of the human race now slaves to a $900 device that's constantly glued to their hands. But over the last year, like watching the last bit of water circling the drain before disappearing down into a dark hole, the remaining newspaper boxes are being plucked off the street.

  Even in my neighborhood, which has six train stations and a few dozen bus stops, a newspaper box is almost impossible to find. As of now there are seven boxes in the entire neighborhood but only three boxes are active which will surely be removed soon.

 For mass transit, the underground newsstand was a mainstay that usually carried newspapers from around the country, but sadly they were the first to disappear from the urban landscape. After repetitive visits, the venders and customers would exchange greetings and niceties by first name. That alone would instantly change someones foul morning commute mood. Just the seeing a friendly face seen day after day was enough to make that commute tolerable. Try doing that with your new iPhone whatever the current number is.

 I find news being spewed on digital media a joke. Kind of like " News for Dummies, full of shortened stories with pop up ads and more often than not click bate titles. I'm amazed to see the amount of people who find trying to read a tiny screen satisfying. What are these people actually learning or retaining? Most are addicted to the narcotic undertow and eerie diseased brain sucking power of social media where lies and half-truths rule the platforms. What good is knowledge if it just floats in the air ? It goes from phone to phone, it changes and grows every second of every day, but nobody actually knows anything. In reality, if reality even exists anymore is that social media is just another name for junk mail.

 To this day I still find pleasure when someone leaves behind a newspaper on the subway or in a diner for others to read but how much longer will this last?