"I only read the paper for local garage sales now."
I wouldn't read garage-sale ads if you paid me, so no newspaper or shopper or craiglist can count on me for that.
When the Internet began casting its Web over America, we lived in a small town. If you wanted to connect, you paid long-distance charges for AOL or Comcast. The phone company wasn't offering local access. It was galling when the neighboring villages and hamlets with their telephone co-ops had the service for a very reasonable fee and our county seat with its national telco was out in the cold. Eventually some local entrepreneurs started a company and began building up a clientele. In time they sold their business and I hope they made a decent profit. They deserved it for taking the risk and providing what started as a novelty and is now part of the infrastructure.
We've all seen how our phonebooks are getting thinner and our newspapers are shrinking. Yet there have got to be more phone conversations going on now than ever before. And our avenues for getting news, sharing information and connecting are simply astonishing. You can moan about it or marvel at it.
I love the digital age. And, frankly, I love the privilege of being able to read 158-year-old editions of the New York Times.
I wouldn't read garage-sale ads if you paid me, so no newspaper or shopper or craiglist can count on me for that.
When the Internet began casting its Web over America, we lived in a small town. If you wanted to connect, you paid long-distance charges for AOL or Comcast. The phone company wasn't offering local access. It was galling when the neighboring villages and hamlets with their telephone co-ops had the service for a very reasonable fee and our county seat with its national telco was out in the cold. Eventually some local entrepreneurs started a company and began building up a clientele. In time they sold their business and I hope they made a decent profit. They deserved it for taking the risk and providing what started as a novelty and is now part of the infrastructure.
We've all seen how our phonebooks are getting thinner and our newspapers are shrinking. Yet there have got to be more phone conversations going on now than ever before. And our avenues for getting news, sharing information and connecting are simply astonishing. You can moan about it or marvel at it.
I love the digital age. And, frankly, I love the privilege of being able to read 158-year-old editions of the New York Times.