So here is the way I consume whatever we think of “media” as…printed word.
I get A LOT of newsletters I scroll through on various topics each day, in the morning and at night. I bookmark what I see as interesting or noteworthy…actually I cut and paste the links, hopefully not all paywalled…into a file so I can go through within 48 hours. I also go through X and Facebook and see what’s trending from people I trust, all of which is helpful to save time and cut through a lot of the nonsense out there.
However there is another key step for me in learning, and I couldn’t figure out what it was exactly until this past week in class, when one of our students…RJ Kranz (listen to RJ’s story here on out podcast) used a phrase that made sense.
Tangible media.
For me it means for long form stories literally printing them out so I can touch and feel them and refer back while not relying on a device. It means a pile of books, newspapers, magazines and the like that I have next to my desk to go through (here is a picture of President Andrew Jackson’s office and his pile of tangible media I noticed at The Hermitage outside of Nashville during a September visit) and revisit and clip and write on.
It means that going through the great profiles of the Time 100 online was nice, but buying the copy of the magazine that I can touch, and look at and follow-up with is even more important. I scroll and I lose thoughts. I read The Athletic and some of the great stories and I lose the moment because more emails come in. I PRINT a story from The Ringer or Wall St. Journal or the Washington Post, and I have the ability to fully digest the meal and assimilate it out.
Now that doesn’t mean that things online have less value to me, or that videos and spoken word are less in my word of a curious listener. It just means I consume in a way that is unforced and works for me. Maybe you can call it old school, but its not. I was told even this morning that some legacy magazines are INCREASING print runs because they are finding that consumers…of ALL ages…have screen fatigue.
You have to find the balance…and it was refreshing and interesting to hear and learn that some of our students…RJ wasn’t alone…actually are learning to consume more away from their device just like we did in the old days.
Tangible…tactile…flipping the page. Maybe not so old…amazing how things come around, or how you can combine thinking and absorbing into the style that works.
Just ask RJ….maybe even President Jackson would have approved.
