It turns out that cotton is not the only touch and feel for our lives. Eighteen to thirty-five year olds, or Millennials in marketing speak, also prefer the touch and feel of real objects as interrupters into their digital lives. This is according to a survey recently conducted by JWT who asked the participants if they liked the “smell and feel” of books and magazines. Millennials reported a higher affinity toward paper than any other generation.

The survey points toward a shift toward slow media by digital natives who find relief in media not sent to them in bits and bytes. Physical objects, like print media, offer a certain permanence, stature, novelty beyond the tactile and sensory characteristics that digital media cannot replicate. There is also a certain level of care, detail, and value placed on physical media versus digital. After all, it is far easier to write a blog post than an article worthy of space in The Atlantic.

The survey does not, however, point toward any redemption for publishers as magazine subscriptions have continued to fall. Maybe publishers and printers should take some queues from the cotton growers. After being decimated by synthetic materials during the 1960′s, cotton growers were able to petition Congress to pass the Cotton Research and Promotion Act of 1966. This along with their marketing efforts, have pushed the share of cotton back up to 60%.

photo: Gene Bowker