It is my opinion that the advantages of the electronic version of the New York Times out weighs that of the hard copy of the paper. I would have to assume that this assertion would be strongly refuted by Birkerts due to his fear of the present age of technological advancements, but I would however have to disagree.
I am one who enjoys that which is tangible, the simple pleasure of holding a paper and flipping the pages by my own accord. I love waking up in the morning and coming downstairs in my house to the daily edition of the paper. But in today’s society, moving a newspaper over to the electronic waves seems to be the most practical thing to do, despite Birkerts contrary opinion.
I say this for many reason. First, the New York Times electronically is free verses the fee that one must pay to have it delivered. Second, this version is more convenient because you do not have to worry about waiting for your paper to be delivered to your doorstep, and you can read it whenever and wherever your laptop can travel with you. Third, the online edition includes fair more articles then the normal times, it has links that can direct you to related articles.
It also encompasses news from around the world, from every region not just the most important stories of the day. This is beneficial if you need to look into articles from a certain region of the world, or want to look up archived articles from past issues. The options for the online editions of the New York Times are in seemingly limitless.
I do, however, understand the hesitation to transition to this newer version of the times. Firstly, people are hesitant to makes changes to their normal routine and when a person has been reading the times for years on paper they are not going to willing just switch to the internet version. In addition, some people do not have access to the internet and if they do there are people that do not have the proper “know how” to navigate through the site in order to accomplish the reading of the paper in a new form. Consequently, the change over to election newspaper means that a lot of people working for print newspapers would lose their jobs which is also why people may want to continue to read the paper in print.
It is, however, my contention that the electronic version is fair superior to that of the print one. I believe myself to be at least moderately skilled with computers and therefore support the electronic issues. I find them to be easier and faster to use and more accessible for me as a college student.
