As I’m sitting here in my tiny office, squirreled away in an old computer lab in the Union,  my family is gathering for one of the most sacred American rituals of all time: watching television together. In fact, this weekend marked one of the most glorious days for Anglophile television junkies everywhere – Downton Abbey is back for its fourth season on this side of the pond.

(While I’m hoping that I’ll veer this letter onto the subject of journalism eventually, there are some spoilers ahead).

I’ve already seen the first episode thanks to a friend in the newsroom with a hookup, but next week I’ll be itching for my fix once again. Still, as I’m sitting here in my tiny office, I’m totally obsessing over Downton. It’s amazing to me, that as I text my sister for updates on how much my mom is crying at any given point during the premiere (the perfect being that is Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess has some choice tearjerkers in this episode) and plunk away on my wireless Mac keyboard, that I’m thinking about footmen and ladies’ maids. Why does this show resonate with us? Why are we so compelled by these fictional aristocrats who are largely apathetic and only briefly, fleetingly sympathetic?

Maybe it’s the themes that make us feel like this show has anything remotely to do with our lives. Not the subject – as a college student who lives on double-fisting Cup Noodles and coffee, Mrs. Patmore’s creations served in silver bowls and tea proffered by butlers have no connection to my reality – but the motifs. The undercurrent of flashy modernity seeping into the cozy, backward Downton universe is really not unlike the undercurrent in 21st century journalism.

When I bought an attachable mic for my iPhone to record radio-quality interviews, I asked myself, per the Dowager Countess, “Is this an instrument of communication or torture?” It’s a tool that’s helped me do my job to its fullest extent, but even this tech-savvy Millennial freaked out a little bit. Gather multimedia content? And then edit it? And upload it to a mobile app? But I thought I was working at a newspaper!

“First electricity, now telephones. Sometimes I feel as if I’m living in an H.G. Wells novel.” I sympathize, m’lady.

However, these are tools that we have to not just accept, but embrace and cherish and learn from. If we want to have a future in this business, we must get used to electricity, and telephones, and before you know it, mobile mics for iPhones and journalistic drones (yes, they are a thing and yes, the Chronicle is looking into using them). Change is the only thing any young journalist can plan for. And it’s our only hope for, A) having a job, B) having the tools to do that job, and, C) ensuring that what we love so much will survive.

So as we enter 2014, to quote the Dowager Countess’ best line from last night’s episode, “You must choose life or death.” We’re choosing life, and we’re forging ahead.

We’ll be launching our website redesign next week. You can download our iPhone apps, Utah Football and Utah Hoops for free in the iOS app store. Every staff member at The Chronicle will be on Twitter starting next week. The newspaper will continue to publish as usual, but we’re going to be teaching an old dog new tricks, too.

It’s not the halcyon, familiar past. It’s the invigorating, Technicolor future. And it’s the future of journalism.