While Found is always interesting and occasionally hilarious, there are limitations to their chosen medium. Quite simply, anything is funny if it's taken out of its context, which somewhat cheapens the whole idea. Grocery lists can seem odd when those who wrote them are not around to explain their train of thought. Love notes and high school tests can seem utterly ridiculous without knowledge of their authors' intentions. Perhaps this is what people enjoy about Found : the idea that everything they are reading is harmless, which makes it easier to laugh. People may simply find enjoyment in the idea that they are being allowed a peephole into the lives of others, which is a view they would not be afforded in any other fashion. But if it is this voyeurism that makes Found entertaining, it is this same voyeurism that will forever limit the publication's possibilities. Found is what it is, and cannot hope to be anything more, a fact of which I'm fairly certain its creators are aware. Quite simply, Found is the print and online cousin of reality television, about which there are differing opinions.
That the intricacies of Found are central to common, shared experiences may explain its success. When people look back at pictures from their past or reread a journal entry from their freshman year of high school, there are two things occurring. First, there is certainly a strident attempt to recreate the feelings of that particular experience, and secondly, there is the persistent notion that were one to be currently involved in a situation as pleasurable as that which they chose to look back upon, the act of looking back would be rendered unnecessary. As such, the act of looking back at an instance in the past is simultaneously joyous and saddening. It very well may be the combination of these two feelings that makes Found so entertaining to its readers. People are far more apt to enjoy the humor of a situation than feel the sadness, a trait that is only exacerbated by the disconnect that is inherent in perusing anonymous finds. The readers of Found can laugh just as heartily or smile as broadly as if they had been the author or recipient of a Found note, but are exempt from having to actually feel the melancholy that accompanies the more sorrowful of the finds. Ultimately, people are allowed to create their own back story for what they see in Found , which allows the reader to exalt in the glorious without having to actually experience the somber. As such, the magazine allows readers much the same experience that is promised in a grim movie – the reader is allowed to control the extent of their own sadness, by remaining on the periphery. Consequently, any real harm is removed.
Because of its success, Found has recently published its first book, released a 7” record, embarked on a 50 state speaking tour and sees its issues placed in bookstores all across the country. The success of Found Magazine may seem surprising upon first glance at the magazine, though further thought on what it provides to its readers may encourage a different reaction. If they are able, people are always apt to live vicariously through others. To be able to choose the extent of one's involvement in a situation is the desire of many, and Found provides its readers with a forum to do just that.
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