Sundays of Yore

For me, Sundays are for relaxing, rebooting, and getting ready for the week ahead. Sundays have evolved over time, but the concept has never changed.

I remember the days when Sunday was all about catching up on reading. The countless magazines that piled up waiting to be opened and read. I still get magazines, although I am one of the few people I know who do. The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Atlantic, Elle, Elle Decor, Vogue, Bazaar, and Architectural Digest. Each of these formats has changed over the years, now with long-form content vs tips. Those tips were the basis for many cultural outings and restaurant recommendations during our travels. Now, I just tear out the page with the URL, look it up online, and make note if it’s even worthy. Do I still need to get these magazines?

The Sunday New York Times was the highlight. We would spread out in each section, sipping coffee and eating bagels with cream cheese. It would take a few hours to read the countless articles, op-eds, and, of course, do the crossword. Of course, the discussions about what was being covered were the best. This no longer happens. It is a constant ramble about where, who, or what.

I still get the Sunday paper, but I flip through it in less than ten minutes because I already know most of it, and the biased slants on everything infuriate me. I kind of take pleasure in only reading the headlines. I do the Sunday crossword on Saturday now. The week has filled my head with so much media that I am not sure I need to consume any more, or, for that matter, should.

Back in 1999, Josh Harris believed that the internet would be the end of privacy. He was right. It is hard to describe Josh. He is a founder, a visionary, an artist, a hard worker…a bit of a poly-genius. He highlighted this belief by creating an underground bunker wired with webcams, surveillance cameras, and microphones throughout. 150 people lived in the bunker, and never left until the cops called it a day on the New Year’s Eve of December 1999. He also lived with his girlfriend in public, recording everything in their life, including the toilet, for 100 days, although the relationship ended after 81 days. You could watch it at any time, from your computer. There is a documentary on this called We Live In Public, which I highly recommend.

The shift of constant access to information has changed how we operate. AI is taking this to a whole other level. The ability for everyone to create content, build their own team of agents, and make films like Obsession, empowering the people, not the corporations. Even ghost kitchens are changing our desire to support locals. Where does this go next? Based on the white noise around us, and as an eternal optimist, I believe somewhere better.

I do miss our New York Times Sundays, and the crazy time of witnessing the rapid changes from the mid-90’s to 2007, the aftermath of that, and now the next evolution of media.

Now, we are all media companies, and we all truly live in public.