Magazines - entertaining or demoralising?

Yes I think not taking them too seriously is key. They're sort of Enid Blyton for adults. I knew I was never going to be sent to a posh boarding school or own a pony or run around with a torch catching smugglers and thieves. But I enjoyed thinking there was an alternative universe where I might.

Likewise I'm never going to give up my humdrum life and job to move to Dorset and turn my hobby into my career. Or spend my Christmas frolicking with tartan clad kids in front of a roaring log fire, or my Summers in skimpy white shorts serving deliciously barbecued food to my photogenic neighbours.
But in an alternative universe.....

I generally read magazines in my tea break at work. The one's people bring in that are a month out of date.
I enjoy reading them, and dont take them too seriously.

Beswitched

I've been reading Good Housekeeping for years but it's been stuck in a rut for a while now. They really need to drop those features about women who have overcome adversity and now run their own businesses or used some difficulty in their lives to 'take stock', give up their successful career in the city and retrain as a herbalist/lifecoach/cake decorator.
They were interesting for a while but they've just become eye glazing now, and seem to take up half the magazine.

They also seem to have shed husbands along the way

Thats the very reason i don`t buy them Hamster58.

I've been reading Good Housekeeping for years but it's been stuck in a rut for a while now. They really need to drop those features about women who have overcome adversity and now run their own businesses or used some difficulty in their lives to 'take stock', give up their successful career in the city and retrain as a herbalist/lifecoach/cake decorator.
They were interesting for a while but they've just become eye glazing now, and seem to take up half the magazine.

I don't have that problem. I don't buy magazines for women of any age. I find what I want to know about on websearch or the like.

Magazines are generally full of true stories which is like watching soap operas which I don't watch either.

Problem solved

(Mr R gets really cross when they advertise stair lifts by having someone using it who can clearly manage the stairs )

A lot of magazines seem to bang on about middle aged women’s issues with confidence, while using size 10 models in their 20’s for fashion features and even “anti-ageing product” advertisements

I used to buy Australian Women's Weekly for years - it was more down to earth than british women's magazines.
Now most weeks I buy an american family magazine which has a women's section and a section mostly on american politics. Fascinating to see the cultural differences (compared with us. )
And I got the Tesco food magazine - free- the other day which is good.

lovebeigecardigans1955 Surely everyone knows that everything is dressed in their best for the photographs and doesn't actually believe anyone lives like that? At least I have never met anyone who thought they werereal, but the basics of the home are there and I am interested in the blend of colours in a room, how they displayed ornaments or use pictures to enhance a room. the fact that there is normally a tv, a half drunk cup of coffee rugs, on the settees for the dogs doesn't bother me, they are just clutter that obscure the view,

They also only show photographs of a couple of rooms, but as someone who is currently living through a major building project and a lot of moving furniture, painting walls and even fitting out a kitchen breakfast room and utility room, I am busy looking at housing magazines of all kinds for ideas about how to decorate and fit these rooms out

...and really I have very little interest in the owners of the houses featured, it is the houses, the styles, and the ideas they create for me that interest me not the owners

My thoughts exactly M0nica . I even look at some of the adverts, which I ignore everywhere else.

It's the same with fashion in magazines - I don't have much interest in fashion trends but it's interesting to see how different styles can be put together by someone with more imagination than me. Most of it is not for me, somethings I like but wouldn't want and every now and again I find something I really like that would suit me, whether it's changing a window dressing, repainting a room or changing the way I wear a dress.

These items of either dramatic or so-called perfect lives are exaggerated in such a way to produce a story that is appealing and hopefully sell a few more copies.

A question I ask of the beautiful interiors is, "Where's the telly?" as unless it's the latest swanky model it's almost always hidden away isn't it?

I rarely buy them now as they make me envious and the least I can hope for is to have a home which is comfy and pleasant.

Do people really believe all the stories in magazines about perfect lives and careers and is that what magazines do? Many magazines are bought because they are full of 'confessions' and 'agonies'. And even then surely in this day and age nobody really thinks that the image in a magazine represents reality.

I must say that the only popular magazines I buy are house magazines and really I have very little interest in the owners of the houses featured, it is the houses, the styles, and the ideas they create for me that interest me not the owners.

I am also well aware that the houses are styled and decluttered prior to the photography, which bothers me not at all, because it is the ideas of funishings and decoration that interst me and those are more easily seen without family clutter.

Although I did know someone whose house was featured in a magazine and it did look as lovely (and tidy) in reality as it did in the photos.

I'm with you GrannyGravy. I have also had Prima on a short subscription (5 for £5).

I quite like the You mag in the Mail on Sunday.

I agree with the other poster's comments about the perfect lives and careers portrayed in some of the magazines.

Subscribe to Countryfile, or some other nature, magazine and enjoy the beautiful photos. Magazine are now more like the tabloid press. Trying to catch your attention by some sleezy headline only to find that inside the article, it's got nothing to do with it.

You’d need to start another thread to get meaningful replies, Biddymo, but seeing as I’m here anyway….

I’d recommend this one, which we bought to keep upstairs, and which works as a hand-held as well as a conventional vac. Powerful enough, very lightweight, two settings and charges quickly. It’s at least £20 cheaper on Amazon and other sites.

www.morphyrichards.co.uk/shop-now/cordless-vacuums/732102-SuperVac-2-in-1-Cordless-Vacuum-Cleaner.html

Good morning to everyone, I’m hoping someone can recommend a hand held hoover to use up the stairs,my dyson hand held one has now packed up after many years and a couple of new batteries.

The economies of magazines. like newspapers depends on advertising. magazines close down when the advertisers desert them as well as readers.

Without advertising Vogue would probably need to charge £20-£30 an issue and Saga upwards of £10.00 an issue.

I cancelled my Saga subscription because they never had offers that applied to Northern Ireland.

I used to take Saga, it was at a discount, but I stopped when I realised I hadn’t read the previous month one properly when the next one arrived.

Also I counted the advertisement pages, they constituted half of the total magazine.

Have to say I don’t miss it at all.

Cs783

Hi Gransey and I’m glad you mentioned free online library provision of magazines. Fabulous range.

Support our libraries grans if you can and don’t already!

Thanks Cs783! There are so many I wouldn’t want to read but some are interesting. ALL FREE!!! No more piles that you keep just in case you might need the recipes etc. Also you can read online and if you really like then go and buy the hard copy. Of course with your library card you have access to hundreds of books and audiobooks, again all FREE.

It would be "forced "By Richmond & Richmond add in telling "THEIR" kids to

by our time.

Neither. I haven't bought a magazine for years. Books, however.................

I used to regularly buy Country Living, Homes and Gardens, Modern Gardens etc but they’re so expensive at nearly a fiver each and as others have already said the same articles seem to rotate around the months. I’ve still got a few copies going back several years and they could be the same as those on sale today. And don’t mention the fashion mags like Vogue, Elle etc. The first fifty pages at least are adverts for jewellery and cosmetics and the actual fashion pages are so arty that it’s impossible to see the clothes.
Stopped buying any of them about three years ago.

Yes Roswell I enjoyed Family Circle too.