Response to week 2 reading on Convergence

I haven't read a hard copy newspaper for months, and very rarely do I watch the news or any current affairs programs on television.

I'm on my PC nearly every day and theage.com is my home page, so I sit at the PC to have a look to see what is happening in the world each day.

This is because reading and watching takes time. Time I don't seem to have any more.

The only time I get to myself during the course of a day is an hour or so during the afternoon (when children are taking a nap) or an hour or so at night once they are asleep.

So as this precious 'me' time is exactly that - precious - I find the quickest way possible to do certain things, such as finding out that day's world events.

It's not just the mum's and dad's who have become time-poor.

I'm sure most people are in the same boat. I can see why mobile internet has become so popular. Why wait till you get home to watch the Olympics, when you can now watch it on the train ride home.

In a generation where you can pay someone to do your shopping, clean your house or book your holidays, it's easy to see why people look for the convenience factor.

However I do wonder what the affect convergence has on the older generation (I'm talking age group 65+).

The oldies I know look forward to buying the paper and sitting down to read it and do the crossword.

I know they would struggle to read an article on line, not only because they aren't computer savvy, but because their eye sight is not what it used to be!

Squinting at the screen just to try and read a few words, I think they would give up altogether if a video clip started playing.

I'm in my early thirties and I find it annoying trying to read articles that are continuously navigating to other pages on the net. If this is the way journalism is headed, how will the older folk cope with it?