…on paper, that is.
I came across this article on GOOD that ponders the possible demise of crossword puzzles, and it got me thinking… While the slow death of printed newspapers has been known and discussed for a while now, the potential corresponding end of (legitimate) daily, printed crossword puzzles hasn’t been so much. Perhaps this is because crossword puzzles seem insignificant in comparison to the entire paper, but not to me. In fact, when I was a student at UO and we had the privelege picking up a free NYT paper on campus, I will (with a bit of shame) admit that, more often than not, I paged my way through the paper only to grab the crossword from it and recycle the rest. In an age where my generation spends more time perusing the Internet than doing almost anything else, I’m used to and also enjoy getting my news online. But when it comes to crossword puzzles, I just can’t do it. I feel very much the same way about online crossword puzzles as I do about Kindle (although the latter actually almost makes me angry): they’re just not meant to be. There’s something off about not using a pen and paper, or not holding an actual book in your hand. I suppose to be fair there’s something to be said about saving paper and the environment in doing virtual crosswords and reading electronic literature. In my opinion, though, when these days we spend so much of our day staring at screens, doing a tangible crossword puzzle or holding a real book in your hands is not only more tactilely pleasing and desirable, but also a breath of fresh air.
So, having never really cared if newspapers as a news source are an endangered medium, I am now worried that genuine, daily printed crossword puzzles’s days are numbered. And I sincerely, desperately hope that they’re not.
