I was wondering recently what the future of magazines are going to be like during times when everyone is a content creator. I’m all for people being creative and in fact I love watching unusual make ups or dresses on Instagram; I don’t even mind occasional cat video. I am trying to remember not to spend much time on that; possibly 30 minutes a day or so, but I was thinking, are we all, as society, not spending too much time consuming content that doesn’t teach us anything and is only an entertainment? Possibly those platforms are great for some things but not so good for others. I am especially concerned here about low quality articles online that are meant to help us understand ourselves or other people.

I mean, that doesn’t apply to me, lol. I’m autistic so I can misinterpret things and that’s what my blog is about.

It seems to me though that magazines provide better content if you want to understand people. You can find there anonymous but detailed stories of marriage or workplace conflicts with a comment from a therapist, while on Instagram you’re more likely to find quick tips on how to always get what you want because a little known life coach managed that.

I think this is especially an issue for autistic folks as we need to look for ways to improve our social imagination and Instagram is really not going to help with that. But I don’t think we buy magazines as much as we used to and who knows, maybe things will get even worse with time?

I wanted to check what Google says about it and found an interview with Samir Husni, an US analyst of magazine industry. The interview is actually about the impact the Covid pandemic had on magazines industry, but I’m sure Mr Husni is aware the world is changing anyway.

The first question of the interview was about how the future of magazine industry is going to look like. Difficult, isn’t it? I was sure that Mr Husni wanted to look like an expert while being aware that the interview will be available online for years for people to read. It is impossible to know now whether people will decide, in a few months or a few years that they’d rather pay for a quality content or if they will go for what’s available for free. We never lived in times like this so we don’t know.

How Mr Husni responded to that? He said: There are only two people who can tell you the future: God and a fool. I don’t pretend to be God, and I hope I’m not a fool. Who knows what the future will be?

I wonder if he coined this phrase himself? Anyway, I need to remember it; I think it’s a great response, one that is worth repeating and we all know that we, autistics, love repeating after other people.

If you want to read the interview click the link below.

https://www.walsworth.com/blog/magazine-trends-in-2021-and-beyond-a-conversation-with-mr-magazine