The thrill of the link
Rex Hammock refers to the thrill of seeing one's name in print. Actually, he links to the design director of nytimes.com who is thrilled by it.
Newspapers grew up on putting people's names in print. That's why we run honor rolls and achievements and business promotions and the "chicken dinner news." We got away from it in the 70s and 80s when we got drunk on power and thought we were all going to take down a president. We returned to seeing the value of "refrigerator journalism" in the 90's but it may have been too late. In an area our size, it's next to impossible to do it right in print. There's way more community news than we have space for. But we have pushed community stories onto section fronts, often to the dismay of hard-news junkies.
Like so much in media consumption, I think it's generational. I still hear from people in my generation who thrill to see their names in print. But, really, they thrill more by seeing their children's and grandchildren's names.
Yet, as I watch my college-age kids, they are so accustomed to social networking sites, being able to read and be read by thousands or millions of people online, that getting their names on paper doesn't overly jazz them. They glance at it -- even stuff about their friends -- and move on, content in the knowledge that Mom and Dad will clip it and file it away.
The newfound thrill is being linked to. With search, it's easy to find, and it means that you're being noticed. Because it's interactive, it feels electric. You are somebody.
Comments (3)
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I think you just about got us Gen Y's right, John. Good stuff! Linking to you in 5... 4... 3...
Posted on January 7, 2008 12:26 AM
I can't tell you how thrilled I was when I saw my name on your blog. ; ) Both my college-age daughter and high school aged son, despite being natives of the net, both have discovered they enjoy working on the "print" versions of publications at their schools -- go figure.
Posted on January 9, 2008 4:45 PM
Thanks. My daughter was sports editor of the high school paper. It lasted a year. Now she's at Chapel Hill and scarcely picks up a paper. Her older sister signed up for a politics course that required a daily subscription to the NY Times. She took the paper for a week, never read a word -- "There's just so much, Dad, and they keep coming every day!" -- and dropped the class.
Posted on January 9, 2008 4:50 PM