Magazines Through the Years

Magazine titles kind of reflect the nation’s personalities, especially our obsession with ourselves.

I remember reading Life in the ‘50s; the magazine was first published in 1883, then reborn in 1936 and published until 1972. Remember? It was a weekly news and photojournalism magazine that graced doctors’ offices and brought lots of pictures into our lives.

Back in the ‘50s, we didn’t have much television, maybe just a few channels (four at best), and it was all in black and white. So we welcomed receiving the picture news magazines and passed them around the neighborhood for all to enjoy.

Yep, it was life – all of us.

And then came People, which first appeared in the ‘70s, first published in March 1974. Still around today, it’s to be found weekly in supermarkets and newsstands, focusing on the people who made the news, rather than the issues.

Notice how we went from “life” to “people”? Not just everything that’s living – just people.

A few years later, Us Weekly came to life in the late ‘70s, first published in 1977. Another magazine that’s still around today, it presented stories about celebrity and entertainment, fashion and beauty. My, how our interests have changed.

From “life” to “people” to “us.” Just narrowing the audience and what we’re interested in, right?

Then, in the early 2000s, Autumn 2004 to be exact, there appeared a publication called Me Magazine about creative individuals. I’ve never seen it on any newsstand as it’s sold mostly in New York City. Guess I’ll have to buy a subscription if I ever want to read this one.

So we’ve moved from “people” to “us” to “me.” Focus, focus, focus.

As if “me” weren’t enough, there’s now Unique Me, a quarterly on-line ezine first published in Summer 2012. It’s for families with children who have special challenges (physical, medical, mental, emotional, behavioral and educational). It just published its third issue and uses social media (Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google+) a lot.

There you go. Magazine titles have evolved over the years to cover what interests us most. Apparently, we don’t care so much about life or humans in general; apparently, we care about ourselves – our own selves, to be more specific.

Is this a good thing? I dunno. Hey, that’s a good title for a magazine: Is This a Good Thing?