All around the world, newspaper circulation figures are heading south. There are various explanations for that, mostly related to the Internet.

Slate's Jack Schafer provides an interesting explanation. He sees it all due to the fact that newspapers are no longer at the center of social currency, the way we develop our relationships with other human beings. "Other institutions do far better jobs at issuing social currency these days,"" Shafer writes. "What is Facebook but the Federal Reserve Bank of social currency? And it's all social currency you can use! Like cocktail chatter, a Facebook posting-be it a link, a list, a photo, or travel plans-conveys the message, I am here. Listen to me. A well-executed Facebook presence, like a superb pontification at the bar or a great phone-in to sports talk radio, demonstrates one's status within one's existing social network. If skillfully wielded, a Facebook page can increase a person's status by attracting "cooler" or more influential friends. These days, you can't raise your status more than a bump by carrying the Wall Street Journal under your arm.

"If one of the great attractions of the newspaper was that it brought people together to rub noses, how can it compete for readers' time with sites like Facebook, which can also give you a real-world news dump if that's what you crave? Thanks to the Web, no interest need be esoteric any longer. Right now there isn't a Facebook group about one of my favorite topics, "meth mouth," but there is sure to be one a couple of minutes after I post this piece, with meth heads, dentists, and social workers networking through it.

"The social networking that takes place via instant messaging, microblogging, or e-mail further steals from newspapers the mindshare they once owned. You no longer need to rely on a paper for the social currency that a weather report, movie listings, classified ads, shopping bargains, sports info, stock listings, television listings, gossip, or entertainment news provide."