^ ⏯️ 🎧 Listen here for most dramatic effects 🎧 ^

They Sucked the fun out of the pages. The media you consumed used to tell us who you were but with the same copy paste formats its become virtually impossible to find any sense of identity in any medium when its all the same blah format. A very big problem we’re facing now dear. Thin words on a piece of paper commodified to fit the black box in your pocket. But what? You save the photo and it goes to die with all the rest of the screenshots you’ve thought you go back to. Your eye doesn’t wander because there is no where left to wander. You read the page like you would an email. Half assed. Theres something that has to be said about the magic behind cutting pieces out of random books and magazines to put on your wall.

I didn’t experience this but I remember being a young girl watching my mom carry a stack of magazines into her car as we ran late to wherever we were going and then her flipping through them and cutting out pictures of the pieces she wanted and using them in show rooms or to buyers to really cement her ideas. Even now I recall her using the office phone with big round numbers as I sat on this old leather chair swinging and spinning myself round on it while she sealed a deal over the phone referencing this magazine cut out in a clenched fist then slamming the phone and circling the piece she clipped with some other words written on it. Now the art of pulling and creating, trying to piece together the idea of the feelings you want to evoke are gone. They’re all done for you. Done so Horribly might I add, but a short search through my moms archive of magazines from even just a few years ago provide such a stark contrast to the sad excuse of a magazine found collecting dust at my local bookstore. They had so much life in them. Headlines and topics that made me laugh out loud. Where did it go? Why did it stop? Who does the dying form of media work for now? Little hint: no one.

A new Sunday ritual of visiting the news stand, picking up a book or magazine early mornings and flipping through it while lazily sipping coffee is a relatively inexpensive and yet stimulating activity. I ran to the newsstand only to find IT WAS CLOSED. Then deciding to pop into the book store and find absolutely nothing worth flipping through. The color was sucked out of everything, the fonts were all bland universal and the images poorly fitting in every way. Where did the editors and creatives go? Did those get replaced by ai too? Frustrated and disgusted by the lack of personality in anything that should have it, I settled for the children’s books. Vibrant colors, beautiful color schemes and drawings with strong messages in the Stories. Children have these to lean on. Believe it or not, young adults did too once. Its like a sterilization of young adulthood. One would hope to find traces of personality in these magazines and yet only were they found in the art books. When did art and culture become separate? Art shapes culture and culture is the moon. A moon and sun dance that cant live without the other. Yet, where is it now?, or more importantly why did it decide to go away?
y

Medias became obsessed with the idea of production, with trend cycles rotating at an infinite speed and media consumed 10x faster than before. All of this had an effect on the way we consume media ourselves. Then the movies became saturated with competition based markets fighting for whoever could best depict the coming years, we lost sight of the movies that actually provided relief to stressed audiences around the world. Barbie opening weekend was as big as it was for a reason. For the first time in a while audiences had something not based in reality. A form of escapism, with real word issues doused in humor and satire. Time and time again we find ourselves going back to the classics. 10 things I hate about you, and 13 going on 30 to name a few (two). But in the grander picture those forms of media stopped feeling culturally relevant. And for the first time in a long time we’re seeing a shift. With an uptick in ads that bring back dance, movement, and story telling rather than selling you an idea on status with heavy branding (YSL, GAP, Gucci). Brands want you to fit within their story, resonate with the brand for some greater cultural movement. The kitschiness of the recent Emma Chamberlain x Jcrew collab, story telling with 4 sweaters rather than selling the person themselves but what it means to BE in the sweater.

To be quite honest it’s feeling like the machine is starting to slow down. The internet is hungry for the bestest newest thing but I think for the first time in a long time people are choosing to slow down and be intentional with the art they choose to make, digital or not but the intention behind creative works is coming back. Because since it booted up (the machine), the system rewarded people for producing certain things, until everything started resembling the reward mechanism. In a world of fatigue we yearn for the humanity with an increasing push of AI generated info, remnants of what it felt like to be human become increasingly sought after. The people want to see you work that 9-5 not that 10th GRWM to go to Pilates. Maybe we’re not nostalgic for old media itself. We’re nostalgic for evidence of human intention. After all, Isnt that what it’s all about? We lack movies with protagonists who are ordinary, and allowed to be ordinary. Who would Jenna Rink be without Matty? and if that isn’t saying something idk what is.

-z