Are newspapers antiquated? Elon Musk’s tweet starts a debate

File image of Elon Musk

In this day and age of digital dominance, are newspapers still relevant? That is question Twitter is busy debating after the world’s richest man, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, tweeted about the number of newspapers still being produced around the world today and how they function.

Elon Musk said his 16-year-old son Saxon was “amazed” to hear about the number of newspapers that are printed every day. The teenager is of the opinion that newspapers search the internet for content and print it out, revealed Musk.

“My son, Saxon, was amazed that so many paper newspapers are still produced every day,” tweeted Musk. “He said they probably just search the Internet and print it out. Yup, with rare exception, that is *actually* what they do haha,” he added.

My son, Saxon, was amazed that so many paper newspapers are still produced every day.

He said they probably just search the Internet & print it out. Yup, with rare exception, that is *actually* what they do haha. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 27, 2022

The billionaire’s dig at the relevance of printed newspapers sparked a lively discussion on the microblogging platform.

There were some who said that newspapers have become redundant in the digital age, when people can keep up with international events in live-time.

“I haven’t read newspapers for a decade,” said one Twitter user. “I think people refer to social media for their news,” another remarked.

I think people refer to social media for their news- do you think so as well @elonmusk? Sometimes I see news on Twitter before the mainstream reports it — Miss Teen Crypto (@missteencrypto) September 27, 2022

Many took exception to Musk’s reasoning of how newspapers work, pointing out that reporters and journalists worked hard to curate, edit and fact-check news before it is published

I’m amazed that someone purported to be so smart is really not. JOURNALISTS don’t copy text from the internet (how would one even conglomerate that for publishing?). Journalists research a topic, interview people, and *fact check*. Journalists are published in NEWSpapers. https://t.co/JYzqIMsMDL

— Debi Jackson (@the_debijackson) September 28, 2022

wow i’ve been spending all this time in interviews, meetings and events when all i really needed to do was search the internet and “print it out.” thank u elon. https://t.co/se392hls0J — Megan Menchaca (@meganmmenchaca) September 28, 2022

Others pointed to the environmental benefits of switching to online news

That’s a great point by Saxon. On average each newspaper kills one tree which means if we can convert one person to reading the news online, that’s one tree saved.

— greg (@greg16676935420) September 27, 2022

But many favoured newspapers

Some people prefer to touch paper lol ! Also a lot of people in their 80’s don’t really like technology and prefer the old fashioned newspaper — Dusya Lyubovskaya (@DusyaLyubovska2) September 27, 2022

My opinion: printed news papers should still be available for the elderlies and young ones whose internet connection is on and off and no connection at all. (for our country)

— Zdyheedyah (@BualHaydee) September 28, 2022