HOBBIES AND INTERESTS Find your niche on the newsstand or on the Web

People like to feel connected to others like them.
By ALINE MENDELSOHN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
"Life may be short but we're not."
That is the motto for Tall, the new magazine for the vertically gifted.
Tall launched only in August, but already readers have flooded the 6-foot, 9-inch editor Everard Strong with feedback. One woman even wrote: "Where have you been all my life?"
Tall people aren't the only ones who have carved out their own cozy niche. These days, it seems, everything is becoming categorized and specialized.
We have 500-plus TV channels to choose from -- everything from the Game Show Network to SoapNet. Plans are in the works for gay channels as well.
The Web site Meetup.com brings together narrowly focused groups of all kinds: stay-at-home moms, slackers, scrapbookers.
And magazines, including Tall, are more focused than ever. Just go to any megabookstore in town and check out these publications: Shuz ("What his shoes say about him"); Divorce Magazine ("Are you ready to start dating again?"); American Cowboy ("Hot trends in hats and boots"); and Paintball Sports International ("Super Paintball Sunday: South Central kids play ball.")
What it means
So what does this mean? Are we building a community around those who are just like us? And in effect, are we shutting out those who are different?
"No matter what we say, most of us like to be with our own kind," says Paul Lane, a professor of marketing at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. "Many people are struggling to anchor their selves in a cove of life where they understand what's going on. It's the rare person who wants to step outside and say, 'What is the other type of person doing?'"
Technology and the decreased cost of publishing have made niche marketing more feasible. Bruce Jackson, American studies professor at the University of Buffalo, points to the search engine as key to niche development. Sites such as Google.com make it possible to look for anything at any time.
"Instead of it just being people in your neighborhood and town, you've got the whole world at your fingertips," Jackson says. "This has all happened so fast in cultural terms. The velocity is breathtaking, and that's what makes it interesting."
Meetup.com, the free Web site, brings groups of people together for face-to-face meetings, usually at coffee shops or restaurants. The endless number of groups run the gamut -- from Tori Amos fans, Adult Fans of Lego and breast-cancer survivors to short-tail opossum enthusiasts and antiquarian booksellers.
"If there's an interest there is a meet-up," says Meetup vice president Myles Weissleder.
Feeling connected
The Web site launched in June 2002, in part as a response to the Sept. 11 attacks. After the terrorist attacks, Weissleder says, people wanted to feel connected to their local communities. Now, more than 400,000 users in the United States alone are signed up. Users hail from 43 countries, everywhere from Sydney to Tel Aviv.
On a recent Thursday evening, Central Florida vegetarians met at the Garden Cafe Vegetarian restaurant in Orlando. A handful of members RSVP'd, but only three showed.
That was fine by Carla Guinta of Orlando.
"I just like to find someone to have a meal with," Guinta says.
It can be intimidating to arrive at a place cold. Meetup groups offer a built-in conversation topic, which is often just a starting point. Local vegetarians, for example, have found they have other things in common, such as political views.
Many of the most popular groups -- witches or pagans, for example -- had difficulty connecting locally before Meetup.
Weissleder says people are naturally drawn to those with whom they have something in common.
"People self-select their interests," he says. "That doesn't mean they are closing themselves off from others."
As pop-culture expert James Twitchell says: "I may have more in common with someone in Tokyo or Berlin than with my next-door neighbor."
Twitchell, an English and advertising professor at the University of Florida, says we are moving away from communities based on shared religion or politics and toward those focused on shared consumption habits.
Indeed, many Tall readers turn to the magazine for its advertising, which tells them where to find extra-long mattresses, among other things. The publication helps readers find height-friendly resources.
"We want to form a community voice," editor Strong says.
In the future, Strong hopes to further subcategorize Tall into different publications for men, women and teens.
Sheesh -- can it get any more specific?
Well, theoretically, they could make a magazine for tall, left-handed, nearsighted teenage girls.