IS THE DEATH OF NEWSPAPERS WHAT IS MEANT BY A PAPERLESS SOCIETY?

The New York Times is seeking a buyer to bid for the Boston Globe. As automobiles phased out the local blacksmith, so is progress and the Internet phasing out the printed newspaper. The breakfast habit of coffee and time to read the paper; reading the paper on the train ride to work; quietly kicking your shoes off and sitting in an easy chair with a pipe in your mouth and a dog at your feet while your wife cooks supper....these have become memories for most.

If circulation numbers are of interest in the top 100 newspapers, check here.

In my own unscientific poll, I asked friends why they still read newspapers. It seems that most do it out of habit. Some find change difficult and others reacting to the assault of constant change hold onto those things which are still there for them. Some don't like to sit at a computer or one is not available to them. Occasionally some have said they like the features that are not available on line, though classifieds, ads and obits were never my reasons for reading one. I've discovered that when I miss the death of someone I am interested in, someone will tell me. If I am not told, the person still remains dead and probably never learns that I hadn't heard.

If there ever was a day in which newspapers were there to give people the news. that day has passed. Now they are money making machines who, like many others, have stopped making a profit and are suffering death throes because the original reason for their existence has been lost. News is rarely accurate nor reported on, but opined. Local news is not enough for most of us any longer...the Internet has shown us that there is a huge world more interest than our town out there.

Today, you don't have to buy a paper, you buy a hand held invention that seems a miracle. You can talk to people on a phone, read all the world news as well as local wherever you wish, take pictures on the spot as you see them, send them to your home computer, pick up messages left for you, read your email..type messages, listen to music...about all your hand held can't do is have sex with you. (No, that's the other hand!)

Switching to plastic toothpicks and dropping newspapers might make my world greener.