The internet is no doubt growing increasingly popular, yet this is happening at the expense of newspapers turning obsolete. While it may be true that there is still a certain group of people who prefer reading newspapers to the internet, I am convinced that the prevalence of the internet is pushing traditional newspapers out of use.
It should be admitted that newspapers still attract some people. These people usually fall into two categories: the elderly and the bibliophiles. Whilst the former choose newspapers simply because they find the internet difficult to access, the latter enjoy the physically printed media all along with its complexities such as the smell of the paper. However, these groups make up a very small fraction of the total population, and therefore it is very hard to see people reading newspapers these days.
Newspapers traditionally played two main roles: a source of news and a form of entertainment by offering sudokus, crosswords and short stories. Nevertheless, both these functions have already been well replaced by the internet. As far as news is concerned, the internet offers faster, non-filtered, reliable and transparent news to the users. People no longer wait for the new issue of the paper to learn about the current affairs; the only thing they need to do is to log on the news websites or go to You tube and watch daily or weekly digest. Ultimately, with all of its conveniences the internet has already become a major source of news and adversely affected the traditional role of newspapers.
Regarding the entertainment aspect, the internet has left newspapers no chance to compete. The internet offers its users a great deal of opportunities to entertain themselves. These may range from watching movies, playing video games online, joining chat rooms and using social media. People can never get bored in this virtual world. Thus, maybe we rarely see people doing puzzles or crosswords in a newspaper.
In conclusion, even though newspapers remain quite popular among a limited number of people, it has been long since most people stopped buying newspapers and started using the internet instead because of its effectiveness and versatility.