Put down the phone. Pick up the newspaper.

Mar 17, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – There is now an uncomfortable truth staring many of us in the face quite literally from our smartphones.

Modern phones come with built-in tools that track how much time we spend staring at their screens. Many people check those numbers and are shocked. Eight hours a day. Sometimes more. Eight hours with heads bent, thumbs scrolling endlessly through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, and countless other digital feeds.

Eight hours. For some people, that is more time than they spend sleeping. Psychologists have begun warning that this behaviour is not just habit—it is addiction. One American psychologist has argued that many of the apps and websites we use every day are engineered to exploit our psychological vulnerabilities and keep us coming back. In other words, that constant urge to check your phone is not accidental. A design ethicist at Google, has repeatedly warned that social media platforms compete aggressively for human attention. He has argued that the race for attention is destroying our ability to focus.

And nowhere is this more evident than in how we now consume news. Millions of people today believe they are “keeping informed.” In reality, they are simply scrolling. They scroll endlessly through headlines, rumours, memes, screenshots, and unverified claims posted by people whose only qualification is that they own a smartphone.

Credibility often does not matter. Verification rarely matters. Speed matters.

People want the news as it happens. They want it instantly, even if it turns out to be wrong five minutes later. And so they scroll … and scroll … and scroll, chasing the next update, the next rumour, the next viral post. It has become a digital form of addiction. Yet ironically, many of the same people who spend eight hours a day consuming “free news” online refuse to spend $100 to buy a daily newspaper. This contradiction lies at the heart of the conversation surrounding the closure of Stabroek News.

Since the announcement of its closure, there has been a rush by some persons to blame the newspaper’s editorial content. Others claim that its perceived political slant drove readers away and drove the paper deeper into the red.

This explanation is convenient. But it is also misleading.

The truth is that newspapers across the world are facing the same crisis. From New York to London to New Delhi to Trinidad and Tobago, the traditional newspaper business model has been under siege for more than two decades. Two main revenue streams sustained newspapers for generations: reader subscriptions and advertising. Both have collapsed.

Readers stopped buying physical newspapers and began getting their news online. At the same time, advertisers shifted their spending to digital platforms where they believe they can reach audiences more cheaply and more precisely. The result has been devastating for print journalism. Even large international newspapers have struggled to survive this transition. Some have cut staff drastically. Others have closed completely. In that context, the financial struggles of Stabroek News should surprise no one. A newspaper cannot survive without readers buying it. Nor can it survive if advertising revenue disappears. No business, whether it is a newspaper, a shop, or a factory, can continue indefinitely while losing money. Shareholders simply do not operate that way.

And yet many of the same people who lament the closure of newspapers contribute directly to their demise. They spend hours every day scrolling through social media, consuming unverified information, rumours, and sometimes outright fiction.

They buy data packages. They pay for internet access. They pay phone companies. But they will not spend $100 for a newspaper. Think about that. A hundred dollars. That is less than the cost of a snack in many places today. Yet that small sum helps support professional journalists who verify facts, check sources, and take responsibility for what they publish.

That is the difference between journalism and random posts on social media. A newspaper operates with editors, reporters, and standards. When it makes mistakes, it issues corrections. When it publishes allegations, it must stand by them. A Facebook post carries no such responsibility. Anyone can write anything. And often they do. If Guyanese truly value credible journalism, then they must support it—not merely talk about it after a newspaper closes. The survival of newspapers ultimately depends on readers. If people want reliable information instead of rumours, they must be willing to pay for it. If they want trained journalists investigating issues that affect the country, they must support the institutions that employ those journalists. Otherwise, the future will be one where public discourse is shaped not by verified facts but by the loudest voices on social media. Eight hours of scrolling may feel like staying informed. But it is not the same as reading a newspaper. Perhaps it is time to put down the phone—at least for a while—and pick up the paper again.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• newspaper, Peeping Tom, phone, scrolling endlessly

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