After months of relying on our computers and personal devices to keep us connected, bring us the latest news, or entertain us, we’re starting to realize flat screens, while necessary for many things including staying in touch during these COVID-19 times, are poor substitutes for the real thing.
Physical connection – in all its forms – is an experience that screen time cannot replace.
Many of us are just plain tired of screens being an extension of our hands or in front of our faces all the time. This phenomenon is being coined “internet fatigue.”
When we emerge from our COVID-induced cocoons, we’re going to appreciate, like never before, how much physical contact is part of our DNA. How our connection to each other is what puts the “kind” in humankind.
When grateful readers contacted me about how happy they were to have our magazine in their hands again after we shut down for two months due to the pandemic, I was reminded of how much INSPIRED Magazine has become part of the fabric of our communities.
Print magazines, like people, offer a tangible presence. We can flip through the physical pages, smell the ink, earmark a page; we can put the magazine aside for a day, month or year, and it doesn’t move or disappear on us, or change, like digitized material.
When various modes of social media started to take off years ago, some speculators said magazines would die. That has not been the case. In fact, the number of magazine titles has increased.
Yes, there have been casualties among the large, generic brands – some were too broad and impersonal to keep their audience when the lure of the internet came calling. But boutique magazines, with specialized audiences, have continued to grow and thrive. The more niche the market, the stronger and more loyal its supporters.
When I started this magazine just over 16 years ago, I knew in my heart that I wanted to do something uplifting and fulfilling. I was not yet part of the 55+ demographic, but I was eager to tell the stories of people who had reached that age marker and were living life to its fullest. That, to me, was inspiring!
INSPIRED Magazine’s largest audience is women, but last week I had calls from two men, both of whom began our conversation by saying how much they love the magazine. Inspiration appeals to everyone!
One of my first indicators of this was a call I received soon after I launched the magazine in 2004. It was a woman who described picking up our new magazine and bringing it home to her husband. She said he turned his nose up at every “senior” type publication she brought home. Hours after thumbing through our magazine, though, he pronounced, “Finally, this is a magazine I will read!”
I cherished that compliment for months. It confirmed to me that I was on the right track.
Your response to the magazine’s return after being away for a couple months is continuing proof that if there’s such a thing as a magazine soul, it resides in this little publication.
Thank you for your continued support of INSPIRED Magazine. Happy September reading.