Journal: Print and Digital Media

Ever since the start of the digital age, where computers and digital technology began to permeate our lives more frequently, there has been much competition between print and digital media.  Print and digital media both compete for the same goal.  They both are used for the communication of ideas but as technology becomes user-friendly and more accessible to a larger number of people, the digital forms of media seem to be taking over.  The article by Gladwell suggests otherwise because paper sales have increased in the last ten years.  This suggests that while digital media is easily accessible to the general public, it still cannot replace the major benefits that attract people to print media.  For example, when an editor is revising a newspaper article, it is easier for the editor to scribble notes on to the margin of a physical sheet of paper then onto the margins of a word document on the computer. These notes serve to be more functional because they can be written anywhere on the piece of paper and can be made to be very specific and clear.  The article also presented the idea that print media can be organized in a manner that is much easier for the human brain to understand.  Piles of paper serve as a mental organization that only the organizer understands completely.  This form of organization is only possible with a print text in your hand.  The organization in this case very closely follows the way the organizer’s brain functions. The tangibility of print media is its main advantage because of the human nature to lay things out in an organized manner in front of themselves.  With all the available information in front of you, you are likely to figure out problems much easier.