Ramen Noodles are Relative

The Newspaper Association of America's article discussing Professor Chyi's theory that online news is considered an "inferior good" in comparison to print newspaper is extremely interesting. As explained, an inferior good is something that people consume less when their income increases - thus using the analogy of ramen noodles. However, I believe this analogy is relative to the generation Professor Chyi belongs in. The generation of our professors and parents grew up with print newspaper. It is what they are used to, it is what many prefer. They like the feel of the paper, they like the layout, their brains even respond to it better (in comparison to digital, according to a study using fMRI scans). As a Millennial, however, and growing up with millennial siblings and friends, I can't help but think that this argument will shift come the next 5-10 years.

I have four younger siblings - all of them consume their news (if any) online. Furthermore, I was the president of my sorority - a chapter of 255 women (ages 18-22). We got the Daily Texan delivered to our house every morning, along with a few other local papers. The stack of papers would sit, untouched, and pile up on the front hall table of our house until someone recycled them. At first, I thought our generation didn't care about the world around them...but this isn't true at all. We just have different ways of consuming the news - in our eyes, a more convenient/accessible way of consuming it, which is online. Now this raises the question: do we consume the news online because we're college students and we don't have the income for paper subscriptions? Once we graduate and are in the "real world" will we change our ways to print newspapers? (One might raise the same question on why college students eat ramen noodles and easy mac). I honestly think that we won't convert to paper and we will continue to consume our media online - because it is what we're used to, it's what we grew up with, it's what we prefer...and in our eyes it won't be considered the same caliber as ramen noodles. We'll be reading our online news while eating our stake too.

Furthermore, I believe this topic is slightly skewed when discussed by a bunch of communication majors. I feel that our sample size is bias towards media - because we wish to devote our lives and careers to this particular field. It would be interesting to survey students who don't have a connection to the communication school and see how they consume their media and what they prefer. My hypothesis is that students would consume media online vs. offline.