How media outlets have lost their true purpose

C/O Yoohyun Park

Technology is taking over creative fields and classic media is fading 

Newspapers are known as digital subscriptions, books are known as Kindles and art is all about graphic design and digital forums now. Instead of flipping a page, we swipe a screen. Instead of a flick of a brush or the drag of a pen, we are tapping and swiping. 

Everything is digital now and it does not sit well with me, especially as an english and communications major. I love the smell of a new book, the way your fingers slowly turn black due to the ink from flipping through the articles of the day and the excess paint left under your fingernails once finished painting. 

Although the digital world makes it a little easier when compared to the preparation of physical crafts such as lugging around materials, I still love the process of it all.  

And do not get me wrong, I am not undermining the energy and time it takes to write an article, book or create a drawing virtually. It just feels as though we have lost the true purpose of the craft. 

Obviously, things are destined to evolve and change, but to have these artistic expressions shift completely to another realm tends make certain pieces lose their meaning.  

Being a child of early generation Z, I still had the opportunity to live a childhood that wasn’t ruled by technology. I never have a phone and my only source of technology was my television.  

All I knew was how to use my creativity to do something or make something. Despite the freedom from technology in my early years, I’m still annoyed at the fact that we as a society were introduced to iPhones and iPads when I was in middle school. 

Despite that experience, I cannot even fathom being a young child with an iPhone or using Instagram so young. Even in my classes growing up, I had already started noticing the impact media had on our generation specifically.  

Presentations started turning into slideshows, photography became incorporated in art class and even music class came with a focus on creating and editing music videos.  

Don’t get me wrong, all of these new technologies have led to immense progress. Just look at the innovations in fields such as diagnostic radiology. But I still miss the craft. 

I miss the rawness. I miss picking up the thick rolled-up newspaper on my driveway. I miss the excitement that came with writing. I miss looking at a painting and hearing the stories behind them and studying the brush strokes.  

I say I miss it as if it is non-existent anymore and even though I know it isn’t, I feel it slowly fading. Who knows? Maybe physical books won’t be a thing soon, maybe paintings won’t either and Google and Photoshop will be the only avenues to follow. Perhaps it is only a matter of time before we live in an entirely digital world.