All of societies most celebrated forms of media were conceived as being mere distractions.
Radio and television only exist to sell ads. The shows have to hook viewers into sitting their butts down long enough to watch commercials.
If they fail to get enough 👀 on the latest ☕ campaign or insurance push, they get taken off the air and replaced. 📉
These mediums only thrive because over-stimulation is seen as a commodity. Look Down touches on the revelation of this being a 100% controllable problem, but I feel there's still a need to profile the issue a bit in this post.
What was new is actually old.
The Internet has been injected with this old media drug as well. YouTube, Twitch, and any streaming service you use to watch stuff nowadays is always pushing ads on you whether you like it or not.
Is this a valid price to pay for entertainment? Do people really only exist to feed the machine? Were some of your favorite shows sacrificed because they failed to appease the GEICO pig luging down the street in that one commercial?!? 🐽
I don't know the answer to any of that, I just don't wish to put time or effort into blindly consuming anymore. My eyes have been open to what's happening for a while now. That's why I stopped watching a lot of tv years ago.
I had the misfortune of seeing YouTube slowly morph into tv Jr, with the advent of sponsored videos and partially skippable ads.
'Not my tube', I'd say if someone were to do a man on the street segment, and place a mic in front of me like I'm not gonna use a silly one liner just to amuse myself.
We are always in control.
Much like the electric heater this winter, I'm putting a lot of energy toward regulating a livable temperature when it comes to dispersing my attention. Television can be unplugged, watch history turned off, and books have always been around if I really wanna engage with fiction outside of music and games.
The mood I'm in now, compared to the pre-album one I stomped around with most of my life, is a whole lot better...
...Though, I still have a ways to go before calling it completely different. I owe this change to my creative outlets, as well as the bi-polar YouTube algorithm that decided to spit out recommendations of real people who talked like they haven't yet fell victim to social-media induced brainrot.
These kind strangers set out to boost whomever wound up watching them talk for a few minutes, and gave millions of dollars worth of game on how to navigate untamed emotion and self doubt in todays hectic, and reactionary driven world. 🤑
I say the YouTube feed is bi-polar, because I also saw cringe compilations, and gossip channels being recommended around the same time.
The duality is funny like that. 😆