Selected Columns

Rika Kayama

Japanese young people's drift away from the newspaper is apparently getting serious. With the Internet spread so widely, many people are now getting their news through their PCs or mobile phones. Particularly those living alone look to save on subscription fees, which I can understand.

However, this slow separation from newspapers has given rise to one problem for me as a psychiatrist, though it is a small one. The problem is, I can no longer use patients' answers to the question: "Do you have the energy every morning to read the newspaper?" as an indicator that those whom I suspect may have depression actually do.

If I ask patients if they read the newspaper and they say, "No, never," I conclude that their motivation and energy have declined, and they may be clinically depressed. Recently, however, more patients tell me that they don't subscribe in the first place, or that they haven't been reading a newspaper since well before their visit to my office.

I'm sure there are many people who would say, "Instead, why don't you ask your patients if they check the news on a mobile phone or some such?" But I feel the energy needed to scan the news digitally is a little different than that needed to open and read a paper.

For example, there are services that automatically display the latest news on mobile phone screens. In that case, a user can do absolutely nothing and still get the news.

A newspaper, on the other hand, doesn't work like that. First off, one has to go to the front door to get it, then sit down somewhere and, finally, open the broadsheet, search for interesting headlines, and lean over the big pages to read stories in that tiny print. Without quite a bit of positive energy to start the day, the act of reading a newspaper just doesn't get done. So, if patients say they try to read the paper, that's evidence that they still have at least some drive and energy.

But hold on, I think to myself. If young people in general are abandoning newspapers, it may not be just because of the Internet or the need to be thrifty. It may be because young people now have less energy and just can't summon the will to read things like newspapers. If that is the case, then this is a serious problem indeed.

If I can't ask patients if they are reading newspapers as a check for depression, what can I ask instead? "Are you writing a blog?" or "Are you posting to Twitter?" These questions just don't seem to strike home.

I suppose I think the newspaper question is still best, but perhaps that's just because I'm from a bygone era. (By Rika Kayama, psychiatrist)