May the Force be with Paper

There is something traditional and personal about holding a paper magazine. You have to look for the index, then find the page numbers you want to view, and flip to them. This seems like a lot of work, but reading a great story and seeing a beautiful photo spread makes it worth your time and effort. You can dog-ear pages, highlight, and even rip them out! They make for interesting collages and brilliant wall displays. Whereas with the internet, you would need to format the image to the correct size, print it out, and use all of your color ink! What if you forgot to bookmark the page? It may take you ages to locate it on the wide worldwide web again! With a physical paper magazine, everything is right there and you can keep it on your night table for years if you'd like. Yes, you can search back to old magazines on the internet, but that does not make the digital version a cherished physical memento.

-Vogue Cover October 1957-

About the article we were assigned to read over the weekend, I thought that some of the comments at the end really made it that much more interesting. The different reactions and predictions people have bring a lot to the story. Perhaps this is a reason why magazines may go completely digital. Yes, I love curling up in the corner of a couch with a blanket, hot cocoa, and my beloved Vogue, but because people can now comment on images and articles that they have thought about, the magazine experience is more enriching and communicable. It's sad when I see a gorgeous dress in a magazine and there is no one in the house to show it to. With the internet, I can even find out how to get the same look according to my budget, let alone leave a comment saying, "That's so cute!!!"

One of the commentaries on the article read:

"You want to know why the magazine is dying?

Just read David Granger's words here. This is unbelievable, folks. Makes we want to ralph a big one.

The EIC of the magazine that once published Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, and Ring Lardner is telling us that you can do fun things by folding and bending the pages into shapes, that this is the future of the magazine.

Mr. Granger, I suggest looking at the words. Forget all the funny folding and typographic trickery, forget the origami and games you're playing with yourself, forget the boobs and butts you put on every page, forget all these base and childish instincts and please, please, take a good hard look at the words."

This brings up a good point about the quality of writing in today's magazine publications. Has it been slacking in comparison to the olden days and are the editors trying to make up for it with "cool" distracting images, texts, and graphics? The only answer that I can come up with for that is "they don't make 'em like they used to." Perhaps that phrase could answer it and perhaps that is what we all will be saying 10 years from now if we say goodbye to paper.

Speaking of origami...