Recently on a Friday morning as I filled my cup with coffee, one of the young members of our little family of employees was filling her water glass. We shared our joy about the fact that summer-like weather was sticking around and that it would allow for great enjoyment of outdoor weekend activities.
I talked about some of the assignments The Observer would be covering that weekend. And then I talked about the possibility of getting in one last camp-out. However, it would be hard to choose when there were so many other things going on. On that particular weekend there was an outdoor market to visit, a craft fair, a family pioneer festival, several church dinners and apple orchard events, just to name a few. My young co-worker remarked about how wonderful all that sounded.
Then she said something that brought my mind, body and soul to a dead stop.
“How do you know about that stuff?” she asked.
In that tiny piece of time my mind raced as to how I could reply to this sweet young woman without sounding sarcastic and unchristian. However, as quickly as I was formulating my response I could see that my young friend, in that same micro-second, had heard her own words and realized the gravity of what she said and to whom.
I replied with a little laugh and a big smile, “Well, not only do I work for a newspaper, I read them too.
And I listen to the radio and watch the local news on TV.”
We both had a good laugh and went back to our desks.
But as you can tell, the conversation stuck in my mind.
A week or so later, the news of Hurricane Matthew dominated the news. As the storm’s path grew to include the northern Atlantic coast of Florida, I knew I should call my son who now lives in Jacksonville. Why did I call him? Well aside from just being a concerned mom who likes to remind her son of that concern, I knew I had to call because he is 23-years-old and he is the same kind of news consumer as my young co-worker. I needed to call to see how he was staying updated on the path of the hurricane.
He does not have cable television. He uses Netflix, Hulu and Roku. He does not have a subscription to a daily or a weekly newspaper. He does not own a radio. He uses his cell phone as a general substitute for getting news, and he forgoes commercial radio in favor of streaming his own mix of music through his phone, even in the car.
My son let me know he was keeping updated on his cell phone through a local app created by the city of Jacksonville. I downloaded the app so I too could see the updates. I did remind him that he should still get himself a weather radio, keep gas in the car so he could charge his phone and keep some cash on hand. (Cell towers do get damaged and debit cards aren’t much use with no electricity). My son said, “Good call mom. How did you know about that stuff?” (See above conversation with co-worker.)
Why all this matters is that my son and my co-worker, both millennials, represent a new breed of media consumer with a narrowing consumption. I worry about them. It’s hard to believe in an age when there is more information available to more people than ever before in history, people are still missing out on good news and wide-ranging ideas, especially when it comes to matters of faith. So should we call it a day and forget about publishing a newspaper and sharing Catholic content through social media and websites?
Not yet. We all need to be “knowers of stuff,” so I believe creating Catholic news and information content is important. With reliable, well-rounded information from sources with some institutional credibility shrinking from our cultural landscape, it’s more important than ever to disseminate Catholic communication and news. We may not always be a traditional newspaper but we will always be communicators of Catholic “stuff.” Stuff that young millennials still need.
So we here at The Observer will keep plugging along so you too can “know about stuff” ... good Catholic stuff.