Challenging the widely accepted view that the young generation of “digital natives” has lost contact with print, media analyst Jim Bilton of Wessenden Marketing (www.wessenden.com) has pointed to a National Readership Survey showing that 15-to-24-year-olds actively using new technology read 24% more newspapers and magazines than the average British adult.
An explanation could be the views expressed by a 22-year-old spokesman for undergraduates at Bournemouth University examining the impact of multi-media:
“We sat in front of screens doing our A-levels, we sit in front of screens at university and most of us will end up in white-collar jobs looking at screens all day. Leisure hours offer computer games, TV and cinema which all serve up entertainment on a screen.
“Do the pundits seriously believe we want to go through our lives spending every minute of our waking hours staring at screens? Don’t they realise our generation is already looking for chances to escape from new technology, that delving into a favourite magazine or curling up with a good book becomes a positive treat.
And the more digital the world becomes, the more restful ink on paper will be.”
Peter Jackson