Some say print is dead, and some say it isn’t – but at least as a source of news, new studies from the Pew Research Center suggest that social media has begun to take over.
According to the data, which released last month, one in every five adults in America claim to frequently use social media as a news source. That rate is just a tad higher than the 16% who often use print newspapers for the news.
It’s also worth noting that TV is still far ahead of either social media or newspaper in this regard (49%), though it too has seen a decline since 2016.
The idea that print is dead is probably still premature – it has plenty of use in certain circumstances (including in many marketing cases), and there will always be a faction of people who like holding paper as opposed to a screen.
But if the data shows one thing, it’s this: as a nation (and a species), we’re continuing to take bold steps towards an increasingly digital world.