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Here’s an example from a recent Weekly Word so you can see the sort of thing you’re missing out on:

26″ ain’t dead

There’s a cycle to things. Fashions come around and if you keep them long enough your kids will eventually think your teenage clothes are totes lit, or something. Some things never go away, they just get reinvented.

This week I went to a conference about magazines – bizarre, perhaps, in a world where ‘Print ain’t dead’ has been a claim made by an ever diminishing few against a backdrop of digital noise and extinct publications. However, there were lots of students there who are studying publishing, or journalism, or graphic design. It is interesting (and encouraging) that there are still young people who think that there is enough of a future in human generated content that they’d spend years studying these things.

I would have liked to hear more from them about what they think that future looks like. They seemed like an interesting bunch. Politically, socially and environmentally engaged. I suspect that they’re not studying with aspirations of creating ‘top tips for striking eyeliner’ or ‘fast fall fashions’. I suspect they’re there, hoping they might get to change the world, just a little bit.

Social and digital media are criticised for creating echo chambers and bubbles of shared interest. Magazines (and books) allow you to be in your own, healthier, bubble. And print allows you to really absorb and digest away from distractions. To think without being shouted at, to form thoughts and opinion without pings of validation or dissent. And then to pass that bubble along to someone else, for them to digest, slowly, thoughtfully, in peace and at their own pace.

Print costs a lot to do well. And it takes resources – staff and environmental. Trees, water, energy – human and power. Whatever you put in print should respect that. It should be something permanent enough that it’s worth that cost. And it should be worth passing on. If it’s not funny, or moving, beautiful or thought provoking, or changing the world, should it be in print? Print ain’t dead – it’s just distilling into something better, and if those students are anything to go by, it’ll be rad AF.

‘26” Ain’t Dead’ has been a refrain in the bike world for some time – long after new high end bikes have stopped appearing with 26 inch wheels. But up and down the country people are still slithering around in the woods and grinning on their 26 inch wheels because they still work quite well thank you. It only really matters if you’re counting seconds between race tape, or want to be able to choose from a full array of modern tyre treads and compounds and such like.

For those that did have a 26 inch wheeled bike languishing in their shed, a new life is now beckoning. My 13 year old son is the beneficiary – he’s now happily rolling through the slop on his ‘new’ 26 inch wheeled full suspension bike. Donated, refurbished and repurposed, it’s been given a new lease of life. Dated geometry on a ‘large’ bike of old is perfectly acceptable on a not-yet-fully-grown man-in-the-making. The only seconds he counts are the ones until the next meal, or the end of school. The only minutes I’m counting are the ones until he grows out of his latest pair of trousers – or his bike.

26” is not dead, it has been repurposed. Recycled into attainable gateways into mountain biking, or saved for the tricks and jibs of dirt jumping and street life. 26” ain’t dead, it’s rad.

Give yourself a shake, for you are not dead. Repurpose. Reinvent. Stay rad.