I've been reading WIRED (I refuse to link to them, that's how pissed I am) since about 1995, a couple of years after it first started up.
It used to be a cutting edge-of-technology magazine for telecommunications, computers, and the computer/hacker culture.
They broke stories, started trends, and influenced the hacker culture to some extent, and had excellent articles.
Over the years, I noted a left-leaning drift, and within the last 12~18 months they went all East Coast/Beltway/Metrosexual/Global Warming/bullshit/Democratic Party/Renewable Energy/Obama-is-god bat-shit crazy.
Long gone are articles and interviews with the movers and shakers of the PC and Technology Industries.
No more "Japanese Schoolgirl Watch" column, either.
The newest issue came the other day, and who's on the cover as a "guest editor"?
Serena Williams, the freaking tennis player!
I have no problem with Ms. Williams as an athlete, as she's proven her prowess repeatedly. But as a guest editor of a TECH magazine?
Fuhgeddaboutit.....
And then there's the headline, in red print, on the cover....
"Let's Change The Future.......Race, Gender, and Equality in the Digital Age"
What a crock of CRAP!
With this issue, WIRED has finally crossed the line from being an interesting tech magazine, to being just another East Coast, Big City "Lifestyle" rag, as if there aren't enough of those out there already.
I didn't look inside the "magazine", even for curiosity value. It went right in the dumpster, and so will all the others I get until my subscription expires.
I'm just glad it comes in a plastic wrapper so I don't have to soil my hands with it......
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<i>The Fisher Saga</i> Continues - Act III -
Been working on this post since right after Thanksgiving. I'm making very good progress on the Fisher, and will most likely power it up...
I bought the first edition of Wired and used to look forward to it. I stopped reading it all together when it undertook the social justice crusade.
ReplyDeleteBruce Jenner will be on the cover of the next edition with an exposed lingerie photo shoot in the middle with a fold-out...Tech maven hottie of the year or some such.
You nailed it!
DeleteNever read it, but I have heard of it. Sounds like I didn't miss much.
ReplyDeleteIf you were into the Tech Scene back when it first came out it was almost "required reading".
DeleteNow it's just garbage.
And bad garbage at that.....
Yep, it's gone in the toilet... I stopped years ago, don't need the SJW lectures!
ReplyDeleteI held on for a while, hoping the whole "social justice" thing was a passing fad with them.
DeleteIn the last year, I think there were 5 really good stories, but it's been "decontented" so much that I wouldn't even use it for bird cage carpeting.
I knew I stopped subscribing to it years ago for a reason :-)
ReplyDeleteIt used to have some decent tech articles in it, but it just got stupid from there and I stopped subscribing to it.
I was always on the edge of not renewing it, but then they'd have a few really good articles, and I decided that it was worth keeping.
DeleteThen this latest issue came out, and I threw in the towel on them.
At least it easy to cancel it online, and I'm supposedly getting $7 back from them.
I have every single issue from #1 up to the Serena, and that was that.
ReplyDeleteInstead of Neil Stephenson's singular reports from the edge, we now have poorly-skilled reportage dumbed-down for folks with the attention span of a goldfish.
Scott Dadich is the editor who has driven this once-important tech magazine off the rails; it's now virtually worthless & unreadable.
As my son says "you didn't leave Wired, dad; Wired left you".
Your son is a wise young man!
Deletefor 2013 2014 I thought it was just something wrong with me. But less tech articles, less cutting edge writing and journalism. But then like Serena, we have an issue full of Rashida Jones, complete with the editor mugging it up with his eyes sparkling in star envy, and after 10 years I've let my subscription die.
DeleteYeah, it's gone so far left, and so SJW, that I won't even pick up a copy of it if I see it laying around somewhere.
DeleteI have been out of the country for several years, when I came back last year I saw a great deal on a subscription to Wired, and since I remember it being a great magazine packed with interesting tech related articles I jumped at the chance. I am really surprised how much the magazine has changed, so much so I googled 'what happened to wired magazine' and found this blog entry. Wired used to be thick and full of unique tech content, now it is thin and more of a lifestyle magazine as noted by another commenter above. Was there an ownership change? What a disappointment!
ReplyDeleteI don't know the ownwership history of Wired magazine, other than to recall that it did change hands at least once, and I think that's when some of the changes started.
DeleteI agree, it's more of a GQ or Esquire type magazine now, with a healthy (?) does of "green" bullshit added, and oh by the way, here's a little bit of tech in an attempt to keep us relevant to our older (and now mostly former) readers.
As I write this, I am sitting in the local libtary with the 12/2016 issue of wired. I would call it inreadable/useless....and I always looked forward to reading it...Oh well, the world moved on...
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