Call in the A&E folks, it’s time for an intervention. You see, I have a little problem with magazines.
My coffee table is stacked with them, my dining room table has a few scattered on it, ditto on my nightstands, and for certain, you can find a few in my purse right now.
But the problem isn’t so much that I have so many, it’s that I just can’t seem to part with them.
Sometimes I organize them all into neat piles or stash them in lovely oversized baskets. But I just can’t seem to throw them away. I’ve tried occasionally to stage my own intervention—sometimes in the form of an urgent text: “Gayle, do I really need a year and half’s worth of New Yorkers?” (“No.”)
Other times, I’ve had to summon reinforcements to physically remove them from my apartment. (I avert my eyes.) I even once contemplated calling Death Bear. A shrink or an A&E producer might connect this to deeper issues, but I think it has more to do with the power of print.
People say that print is dead. One of my best friends, who makes her living online, taunts me with this refrain regularly (I taunt her in return with the fact that I’ve busted her multiple times buying Wired).
Perhaps I’m old school. But I don’t think it’s as simple as that. There is an experience to print that cannot be replicated online or on an iPad or a Kindle, despite their bells and whistles.
I do not—cannot—deny that those platforms create and enhance content in ways that are far-reaching, thoughtful, powerful, and, well, marvelous. But print creates moments. A colleague once described sitting down to read O: The Oprah Magazine (which is my true guilty-pleasure read) as feeling like she was curling up on a comfy couch for a long chat with a good girlfriend—and I knew exactly what she meant.
The only part of air travel I like these days is hitting up the airport newsstand. I look forward to it more than Christmas. I’m often the person you see sprinting wildly to the gate, usually because I’ve gotten lost in the magazine racks, trying to decide which ones to buy. My budget is generally about 20 bucks (which gets me about four), and it’s always so hard to choose, but there is an immense satisfaction and unbridled glee in forking over that cash and tucking those pubs in my bag. And, oh, where to begin once I’m settled in for the inevitably cramped flight?!
Do you ever really have that feeling when you fire up your laptop or iPad?
When I think about how I use the Internet and even electronic devices, I realize I use them to consume information. Not to be comforted, surprised, delighted, engaged, tempted. Maybe I won’t get through the whole issue of any given magazine, but the possibility exists. If it’s on my table or in my bag, I can pick it up and easily jump right back in and get swept away.
As technology advances the world faster and further, making us all a little more connected and slightly more frenetic, print forces us to slow down. Its permanence is a reminder that not everything moves at warp speed. And we’re all going to be looking for a little more of that in our lives pretty soon, if we aren’t already. There’s going to be a backlash, just you wait. Everything old—or “dead”—is eventually new again.
I should point out that there is one magazine that I do not have a problem throwing away: Us Weekly. I actually take great pleasure in tossing it. Maybe it’s because I digest every last bit of the addictive pop candy it contains, or maybe it’s the rush I get every Friday when I open my mailbox to find it, or maybe it’s because I always know when the next hit (I mean, issue) is coming. This really is starting to sound like a serious problem.
So, which show’s producers to call in: Intervention or Hoarders? You decide. But whatever you do, don’t ever tell me that print is dead.
[image: galant]
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re not the only one!
Creative types tend to want to extend their mental storehouse of ideas into the physical world.
I think were are near digital evolutionary point where the electronic media will become flexible (like pager) or become a projection 3D hologram rather like CSI Miami. in either case it will be something you carry around but without the clutter, truly and artificial extension of our cognition system.
Can totally relate to being excited about scoring magazines at the airport newsstand. It’s definitely something to look forward to when traveling.
I’m with you on the “sitting down with a good friend” feeling, and in a small apartment, I find my magazines are overtaking my shelves. I think when I get my subscriptions, it’s the one time that my phone and computer are disconnected and I isolate myself from all that crazy stuff going on around me. Scanning the headlines and Googling info online just doesn’t do it for me like a fabulous print edition. Well said!
When I left my old apartment in Bethesda, I found a couple of victims on Craigslist who agreed to haul away my larger-than-life entertainment center (this was some time ago, in the golden age of the projection television). When they arrived to collect their prize, they couldn’t carry it away. Befuddled, they began opening the drawers. To their surprise, what did they find? You guessed it. Magazines–hundreds of them. Now, ask me if I threw them away?
Another agreement with the airport (and train station) newstand glee! Even when I have a good book in hand and a short flight, I buy at least 2 magazines before settling down to wait for my flight. Fun to see other editors do the same thing.
I get excited about my iPad and my MacBook, not what is on them. We may be headed in the direction of all digital reading, but that just means that technology has overwhelmed another part of our life. Not that it is good or enhancing or beneficial.
I think this started very early for many of us. For me, it was Highlights in elementary school, Omni in HS, and magazines of every description in college (it was the age of the sample issue, which led to many subscriptions: Mirabella, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Shape, Granta…). As an adult, especially with Media Bistro and Amazon egging me on with membership comps and promotions, my house is a lot like yours—and Christmas has nothing on a mailbox bursting with monthlies… AND, like you, I absolutely can’t figure out how to get rid of any of them. Loved this, Andi…
Absolutely! When I sit down with a print mag, it represents relaxation and a bit of indulgence. I put on my slippers. I drink tea. The cats snuggle. When I read digital versions, I’m on alert because I’m culling information. Even when the digital stuff is fascinating or informative, it’s still work.
Amen, Jennifer–even when digital is fascinating, it’s still work. And thanks to all of my fellow hoarders/mag nerds for coming clean; it’s nice to know I’m not alone. And in fact, I suspected I wasn’t. I think us magazine geeks are still a strong breed.
Right on Andi, I’m with you…. I have back issues of Domino, Prevention, Washingtonian, Vanity Fair, Saveur, National Geographic Traveler, Bon Appetit, Real Simple and of course the New Yorker…. you never know when you might need one of them..
I miss Domino. That’s a good one to have kept!
Love the idea that “print creates moments.” I’m personally already very weary of all the iPad hype when it comes to magazine publishing. Tablets add nothing of worth to the mag reading experience IMHO, and in fact accomplish just the opposite, with their interactive ads distracting your eye at every turn. Advertisers may want more obtrusive ads, but readers? Seriously? That’s like saying, “I wish that ads on TV were even louder than they already are.” If tablet makers want digital magazines to take off, they need to impress and add value for readers first, and advertisers second.
Ms. Gabrick – Your magazines are my books. For some reason I just don’t have the same moments with a magazine as I do with a book. As a weekly traveler by plane I have attempted the magazine route but usually find myself looking for my book after a few minutes. I love me some technology to catch up on news and sports via my blackberry but there is something to be said about not being dependent on a charged battery or Wi-Fi connection and not having to worry about being interrupted by “please turn off your electronic devices”.
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