The Internet is now the main national and international news source for people ages 18 to 29, a study from the Pew Research Center reports.

This headline and first sentence appeared on mashable.com today and I must say it’s not really shocking. Unfortunately I’m not a member of the demographic anymore, but the internet is my main source for news and has been for a while. To be honest, I get all the news I can handle from Twitter and RSS feeds.

As I began to leave newspapers and TV behind, I found that my biggest concern was getting reliable news. Let’s face it – anyone with a smartphone and internet access can post ‘news’ but I had a big issue at first with reliability. I chose the people and sources I follow on Twitter carefully as there are clearly reporters and newspeople who get it, and those who do not. 

Now that I’m fully immersed in the internet news culture, I really don’t understand how people can wait for the 6pm news or the morning newspaper. Being on top of the news cycle locally and nationally has caused some interesting conversations with my friends and family who still rely on traditional media. I often want to discuss a news event that they haven’t even heard about yet and in some cases won’t hear about until the next day when they wander out to get the paper. At times I find myself not willing to discuss something I just saw on Twitter because I don’t want to have to explain (again) how I heard it and how I can be sure it’s true. 

And of course this also leads to the inevitable problem of information overload. There are times when I really don’t want to hear about a car accident in Texas or a murder in Oakland. I’ve gotten better at filtering out the folks I follow on Twitter, but there are still times when I see a tweet that makes me feel like I’m getting too much information. 

Earlier this evening I was watching a show on PBS about the Civil War. They were explaining how different battles unfolded and how things worked. It’s almost unimaginable today to think that it could take a week for the President to hear the outcome of a battle 200 miles away. I wonder what General Lee would thing about Twitter!

While this headline is hardly news, it’s interesting to me because I’m right in the middle of all this. I didn’t grow up on the internet like my kids will, but I’m not so stubborn that I can’t let go of the newspaper and TV news either. While I do enjoy my digital news, some Sunday mornings I enjoy reading the sports page while I eat my eggs and watch the Sunday news programs.