RSSWhatever Happened to Magazine Subscriptions?
About 10 years ago, I had subscriptions to Elle, Bazaar, Entrepreneur, Star, and a few others. And earlier than that, I remember being a teenager who was so excited to get my Seventeen magazine in the mail. I’d flop down on the bed and spend the afternoon flipping through it, getting beauty and boy tips galore. Something about the rise of the internet sort of stalled out magazines, it would seem. All the things I used to look in magazines for, I now look at online. Which sounds not only convenient, but also like the natural “flow” or progression of technology. An inevitability. And if you had asked me about this a few weeks ago, I probably would have said as much without a speck of hesitation. But I realized something lately; I spend WAY too much time in front of my computer. I use a computer all day long at work, and then when I get home, I hop on the computer and check my email, my Facebook. I check the weather online, I check traffic online, I check store stock online and shop online. These days, I even date online.
Now, I would never naysay my beloved internet; indeed I wouldn’t want to live without it. It is fascinating, convenient, and brings the whole world to my fingertips. But in a way, I am starting to believe I am missing out on real life just a bit. 
My grandmother was, like most Bostonians, a Red Sox fan. When she was a child long before television was in every home, she would listen to the games on the radio with a little earpiece. Until the day she died, she simply refused to watch a game on TV. And I never understood it back then—never understood why she would choose to listen to the game over being able to watch it and hear it as well. As an adult, I am more and more beginning to understand. It was nostalgic for her, first of all. And she was certainly not anti-television by any means; she watched the news every night. But she was attached to the way she heard those games as a child, when she would have to imagine the home runs and strike outs in her own mind. If she were to watch the game on TV, she would lose this precious flowering of imagination entirely.
I am beginning to feel this way about technology. I am glad to live in these times, when the average person has access to so much. But at the same time, I miss certain things about the days before cell phones and the internet. I especially miss the simple joy of getting the magazine in the mail. Because good things come to those who wait, as they say. The fact that I had to WAIT for that magazine to arrive created a thrill for me; the anticipation was part of the fun. Today, if I want a hair or make-up tip, I can find it in an instant online. It is wonderful, sure, in its own way, but a flaw in another. The instant gratification is not nearly as rewarding as something I have to wait for. And I truly miss flopping down on the bed to read magazines, instead of spending countless hours hunched over my desk. I have decided to start subscribing to magazines again, to get a little of that precious quiet time back. To feel again that I am waiting for something special to arrive, just for me.
And maybe you too should rethink magazines. If all the reading you do is online, ask yourself this: Do I really need to do EVERYTHING online? What about National Geographic, and Cosmopolitan? Rolling Stone and Spin? I’m going (online-Oh the irony!) to order a few magazine subscriptions, because as much as I love technology, I don’t want to rob my life of some of the simpler pleasures and rewards of delayed gratification that follows tender anticipation! This is why I am going to visit MonsterMags.com, 4Mags.com, MagazinesUSA.com, RitePriceMagazines.com, and BestDealMagazines.com to get my magazine fix. And of course, I’ll be visiting 58Coupons.com to get savings up to 80% with codes and exclusive coupons.