Growing up, my parents were loyal newspaper subscribers. Each morning they would sit and opposite ends of the kitchen table with cups of coffee and sections of the paper spread out before them. This was normal--you would see similar scenes in movies, TV shows, and read about them in books. All over the nation people did the same. I always assumed my adult self would also read the paper. Fast forward to the modern era, and my adult self attempted to read the paper a couple of times over the years, but never would stick to it for long. The reasons for this are many and include:
- TV news channels
- news sources on my phone and computer
- being busy with kids and then working
- wanting to read more interesting material (such as novels)
- not wanting to spend the money
- and finally, just being lazy
Fast forward several years and I have not read the paper with any regularity for quite a while. I long ago stopped watching television news. It is either depressing or argumentative or skewed to one side or another. It seems that with all the 24 hour news, stories get blown out of proportion. I haven't seen a television news program worth watching in a long time. The Russian political on-line meddling really brought to light the fact that you can't really trust stories you read about on random on-line stories. So, as a result, my news consumption was sketchy and piecemeal and I began to feel like I wanted to be better informed. I wanted to work my brain and read and learn something every day. Enter a free trail newspaper subscription that was delivered to my driveway completely out of the blue at the perfect time (I get Wed., Thurs., Fri., and Sun.) and I am instantly hooked!