(This post is still a semi-WIP)
These ideas have been rattling around in my head the past few months, so I'm going to attempt to mix them together somehow, as I think that these separate elements are all a reflection of the current trends and situations.
(Quick disclaimer: This is a personal take on things and speculation rather than anything formal or professional.)
(TW: Depression and mental health mentioned in a few subheadings)
In July of 2022, HBO Max (Now Max) removed several titles from it's catalog. Some of them were "originals" made exclusively for streaming on their platform.
While it made a buzz in the animation community for striking titles like Infinity Train and Close Enough, it didn't seem to make as big of an impact as fans hoped. The reason why tax writeoffs are so dreaded by many fans, is because it not only removes content from the platform itself, but eventually in many cases removes any way of viewing it legally. For digital only content this makes it even harder to own than when released on physical.
As a long time animation fan, I was familiar with how cable treated "lesser" animation titles. Thrown to horrible time slots, not promoted, and then tossed away forever as a tax writeoff. Some creators allegedly weren't allowed to make new content of their IP as they sold the rights when joining cable networks, such as with Making Fiends. (Despite it's lack of initial promotion, I still occasionally remember it's fate)
Streaming was once sold as the newer and cooler alternative to cable. It was cheaper, it had plenty of content, and it was willing to take risks. It became a meme about how much money Netflix was throwing at anyone to make content for them. It was going to save us from the cancelations of cable! We would get to decide what got made and continued!
But like many things, the golden era didn't last. Prices went up, password sharing cracked down, risks were minimized. Shows were getting cancelled left and right, and there was no patience to be had for growing a fanbase over time or a gradual cult following. The new motto was "Succeed instantly, or get canned."
As services ballooned, and content quality dropped, again it became "hundreds of channels, but nothing to watch". Streaming wasn't the cable alternative anymore, it was the new cable.
While there are certainlly benefits to streaming compared to cable, there are things that have been lost as well. A big one was because of hyper specific algorithm feeds, we lose the sense of connectedness over "must watch classics" known by almost everyone.
(April 2024 Edit: As I was writing this, Paramount+ did a similar removal of select titles, including some originals. This is an increasing issue, and may continue in the future with other platforms. This is not the same thing as titles rotating in and out of services each month, as they are still available on other platforms in most cases.)
In the past, if you wanted to get a far reach creatively, you had to bet on the "old" gatekeepers. Join a major network, or large company, and maybe one day get the chance to make your own project. (I am generalizing as I'm not an insider)
Now the scene is different, and it comes with it's own ups and downs. The good news is, majorly more people have the potential of "making it" on their own than in the past. The bad news is, changing formats didn't remove the concept of gatekeeping creatively.
We have "new" gatekeepers, and those are the algorithms and numbers. Make good numbers, or else. Make bad numbers, and your reach might be lessened, or maybe your subscribers won't see you anymore, or maybe one day you won't show up in any feeds at all!
And if you don't like it? Good luck trying to make a big enough stink if you're not a big enough creator. Because customer support for creators is also seemingly automated (if it exists at all for that platform), so you might not reach any human during the entire process!
This has a really heavy impact on creators, who feel like if they aren't constantly creating in the exact way wanted, they are screwed. And because the trends and guidelines are constantly changing, you never know when you could be striked next. People feel guilty for even taking a few days off, and when on break are constantly thinking about how to make more content to please viewers and the algorithm.
I was watching a video about fast fashion one day. It mentioned how we used to have 4 seasons of fashion per year, while now it's many micro-seasons. That's when it suddenly hit me, media has this problem too! Media trends are so rapid now!
I remember when media was very slow to get, that fandoms would last years or even decades. It wasn't that long ago! Yet now things feel like they are barely remembered months later. Sometimes even weeks later. "That trend is sooo two days ago! Get with the times!" it feels like that. lol
I felt that pressure when trying to keep up with gaming or making content too. Always a rush to get the latest thing ASAP.
That content you're creating couldn't and shouldn't wait 2 more days, because everyone else already finished theirs an hour after existing!
You don't want to post a dated meme or an outdated trend, do you?
And then a few months later it would be replaced with the next flavor of the month...
Indulging an aside for a moment, but when money was tight you couldn't buy a brand new videogame (or other media) every single month.
"But what did you do then?"
You replayed games. You went deeper into them. You tried looking for hidden features, or secrets, or getting slightly better, or aiming for a faster time or higher score.
Who benefits from throwing away things as soon as possible?
It's not like these are physical items of clothing. You don't have to worry about them disolving or staining or shrinking or being ripped to shreds. Maybe scratches on a physical disc, but a lot of titles are completely digital anyways.
Sometimes I want to go up to the communities and say "Can we slow down? Can we think about this more? Can we branch out? Try something different?".
So here is a digital recycle challenge. Rewatch or replay something. An old favorite, something from 2 years ago, whatever you want. See if you notice something you didn't before. See if you still like the same parts. See if it aged poorly. Maybe talk about it or write your own post about it.
I heard awhile back the term "second screen content". I felt like it was such a degrading term. [adult swim] even had a bumper joking, "Don't worry! We don't expect you to give us your full attention! That would be rude!"
Sure they aren't known for the highest quality TV, but isn't that depressing to hear outloud?
And those TikToks split into 3 different videos at once? How can people put up with that? What is going on?
I remember occasionally in the early 2010s I'd hear someone mention "I watch everything at 2x speed, it's faster that way!" or "I just want something to play while scrolling on my phone!". I would laugh. It sounded so absurd.
Didn't they understand that art wasn't a hotdog eating contest trying to shove as much food down as fast as possible?
Didn't they get that doing two things at once would result in both being done half heartedly?
But, it's something that can sneak up on you.
A skip here, a half hearted listen there, isn't focusing so tiring?
"I don't have the brain energy for this anymore! My spoons are all used up!"
I found myself ever more consumed by scrolling. It didn't matter what, anything to keep me away from thinking about everything.
No thoughts, head empty.
No feelings, heart empty.
No existing, no being present, a husk of a person inside.
But not in a fun or relaxing way. In a worringly exhausted way. An ever consuming pit of empty nothingness. And then feeling shame for being so boring.
"Why can't I enjoy things the way I used to?"
"Why does it all feel like a giant chore, even what used to be fun?"
"Why do I keep doing things I hate, when I could be doing things I love?"
I remember around 2015 or so, reaction content kept popping up online. There was even a big debate over if the word "react" could be trademarked. At first it felt amusing, seeing young people react to older things or older people reacting to younger things. But over time the novelty wore off, and it seemingly faded away.
Then around 5 years later, it started popping up again. Except this time it was streamers reacting to things instead of pre-edited content. (Although many streamers then go on to re-edit several hour long streams into shorter highlight VOD videos!)
I was confused at first.
First shorts are back again, and now reactions?
Why now?
Am I losing it again? (Possibly!)
Again, at first it was kind of fun. There are many creators that can make genuinely engaging reactions and add something to the original material. This time around we even got professionals in various fields(*) giving their reactions to things. (*for profit of course lol)
But eventually I started to get drained by it again.
"Is that all creating is now? Reacting to others content to pad out your own content for the ever hungry algorithm?"
Anyways, I consider reviews as separate from reacting as they are usually not only first reactions, but scripted out and edited to add more depth. Some reviewers also make first reaction content, but the main difference is they are not including the full original source material when reacting. There is a difference between including a 10 second clip to make a point in a review, and occasionally pausing a full length episode to add a sentence of reaction.
After watching various reviewers, and reactors, and commentators, I felt frustrated. I was tired of deciding how I viewed things based on a filter of other people on the internet that I barely knew. I still enjoyed occasionally seeing reactions after checking it out myself, but I wanted to actually interact with media firsthand for once.
We're not only literally filtering our photos through a screen, but we are filtering our experience of reality itself by passing it through the internet first too.
I've spent way too much time on screens throughout my life, and it's to the point I have static visually in my eyes. I can't even look at reality anymore without seeing the side effects of the digital.
Does it really matter what people you don't know at all think about the newest film or book or restrurant online? I mean literal one-off anonymous strangers, not people you choose to follow their content online for entertainment.
Would you walk up to a complete stranger and ask them if they loved the latest Marvel film?
Would you shout in public "WHO LIKES THIS PLACE?! I'M NOT SURE AND I WANT YOU TO DECIDE FOR ME!"?
Would you walk up to someone you don't know who has never been in a relationship and say "Hey buddy, I'm having an argument, but I can't decide, tell me what to do!"
It's only when you look at these "typical" internet situations and frame it in a different way, does it start to sound strange. That maybe something being common isn't the same as it being "normal". (Or maybe I've lost the point completely, I don't know! And I'm not saying to never look at anonymous posts, but to think more intentionally about it. Anyways, moving on!)
The subheading is a play on words inspired by Patrick Willems. His video is what got me interested in talking about this.
In a post streaming world, everything is "content". Everyone is a "brand". Everything must make money, or at least try to make money.
But is that really the best for everything?
Is there no value in something if it doesn't make a profit?
I don't think that's true.
There are some creators I have followed who never got successful.
Who probably barely made a cent off of their work.
The odds weren't ever in their favor(*).
(*I have been rewatching The Hunger Games recently before checking out the prequel film)
There is a specific creator who have since deleted their accounts, and gave up on creating anything. They even deleted most of their back catalog too.
Why create if it's not for likes or follows?
Why try if you'll never be viral or famous?
I never told that person how much their work meant to me. It wasn't shiny or new, it wasn't viral or trending, no. But still through repetition and hard times, it continued to speak to me. It connected with me. It made me feel things. It made me wish I could give something back to them, but I couldn't. I was too late.
Isn't that what art is about?
Making something that resonates with people?
That captures the experience of being human? The highs and the lows?
It's not just pixels on a screen, or soundwaves, or a series of paint blobs on a canvas, it's human art.
And I feel like that by treating humans as content machines, we're forgetting why "content" was ever created in the first place.
During the social media boom era, the formula for content creation went something like:
Post-ChatGPT this increasingly has become:
Algorithms are very good at making the same thing over and over again. But the difference is algorithms don't have their own opinions (yet).
Humans get bored of the same thing repeated (eventually), AI will never get bored.
(*The "Algorithm Meta" is what topics and formats are currently trending in the algorithm. This is inspired by "meta" strategies in videogames, where specific strategies are more likely to result in success and become dominant to the point of oversaturation. Until the next new meta format is formed, and the cycle repeats.)
Much like highly processed food gets rid of a lot of the original nutrients found naturally, algorithm-based reccomendations strip away context and depth of knowledge.
The last heading got me thinking, "Isn't this strange? We have more humans online than ever before, and yet our biggest complaint is the internet doesn't feel human enough? Why?"
It's like the internet itself is a game of telephone, and the longer it goes on the less human it gets. That by us consuming the internet more than reality itself, we also start feeling less human in the process.
Whoo boy that's a bit dark, isn't it? I'm not going to lie I find myself getting more anxious about that kind of thing sometimes... I'll try not to doompost too much over it! Hopefully I'm only overthinking things!
So the gates of "content" have been unleashed, the streams are overflowing, nobody knows where to go or what to do.
What now?
My prediction is we will see a return of human curation. That artifical curation can only give more of what is already existing and already liked. (at least based on how things currently are) When we see collections made by people, we not only get a collection of works, but a bit of that person's personality infused as well.
Whether this be professional collections that are highly regarded, or indie scenes, or reviewers, or someone on a website or video saying "hey! this is neat! check it out!".
I try to practice what I preach by sharing when I can. And I don't mean the auto-share links, I mean manually doing it by intentional choice.
This is also why I think the Indie Web and other Indie Scenes are still important! I don't know if it'll ever be mainstream or the default way or popular, but it does matter for creativity and experimentation and risks.
Thankfully there are still alternatives out there!
I wanted to go more in depth about this, here are some sub sections. (will edit this part in more detail later)
This one I found funny because it went from the internet, to traditional media, back to the internet again. Making a full circle.
The first time I saw Adam Conover was from a YouTube channel formerly called "College Humor". As you could guess by the title, it was internet comedy mainly aimed at college-aged people. I found them through several of their videos going viral at the time. They'd pick witty titles that fit in the internet discourse of that era. One of them was a segment called Adam Ruins Everything.
Later on it was announced that a TV show with the same host and same name would air on Tru TV. It would feature a similar concept as the web version with a longer runtime. I really enjoyed the show. I regularly watched new episodes as they came out on cable, and would occasionally see debates and discussions about specific episodes online. I was pretty sad when the show ended, but felt it had a pretty good run.
Occasionally I would remember it existed and think "Where is it now? Will it come back?". There was a brief Netflix mini series. I even tried a few episodes of a short lived gameshow for a different TV network because I enjoyed Adam as a host.
Then a few years later I started seeing Adam pop up yet again. This time, back on YouTube, but on his own solo YouTube channel and podcast! This time talking about topical content, but in a slightly newer YouTube style. Out were (I assume) millennial-aimed jokes and jabs, in were jokes about Taylor Swift and Elon Musk.
The golden rule is "Treat others as you would like others to treat you". Now think about it applied to creating online. If you don't like consuming that content format or that platform, why would that suddenly change when creating for it?
I'm scolding my past self partly as well. Complaining "why don't people on Twitter want to read long texts?!" is absurd. I told myself "There's no other option! That's where the views are! If you don't get followers, no one will care!"
Even if I had somehow did well there, I probably wouldn't have been happy. Because if the normal behavior there is art gets looked at for 2 seconds, that's what is going to happen. Hoping for any other result is kicking and screaming against the flow of the current.
You don't build long term communities on short form platforms.
You build long term communities on long form platforms.
It might not be fast. It might not be flashy. It might not be easy. It might not be in the way you want. But that's what I've accepted.
If I wouldn't like:
Then I shouldn't create that way either. No matter how many social media gurus say "Trust me! I'm the expert here! Do what I say, and buy my course! That's the only way to grow!"
I didn't like the feeling of being hooked on scrolling, so why would I want to encourage that for others? Because that's what people say to do?
I would rather ramble here to myself, than try to force someone to do something they don't want to or care about something they don't care about. I would rather focus on what I'm doing, than trying to please a constantly changing system for the chance of "making it".
(5/4/24 edit: I've been on the fence for awhile about if I should go back to creating outside of this website, and I think I would like to try video creation and streaming, but as a hobby for right now.)
Of course if it's your career I'm not judging that. I understand there are things you have to do you might not agree with. There are trades to be made. Hell, I've even debated if it's worth trying to audition for a bigger space, because DIY self management 24/7 is exhausting. Passion alone can only get you so far before burnout hits.
What I mean is instead of small creators being indie and enjoying the benefits of smallness(*) while they still have it, a lot of small creators are chasing that high for bigness.
They are merely "temporarily indie" future big social media influencers.
(*)What are the benefits of being small?
and more I'm probably forgetting. (I might edit it later.)
Make content. Not enough followers.
"Can I make a living off this now?"
"No, get more followers!"
...
Make more content. Still not enough followers.
"Can I please make some money? I'd really like this to be my main thing! Or even a side gig!"
"No, get more followers!"
...
Make even more content. Feeling drained with nothing to show for it. Still not enough followers.
"Pretty please, can I get anything for this? Do you even hear me? Have I wasted all my time doing this?"
"You must not be pleasing the algorithm enough! It's your fault! Just grind harder! Work more! Work faster!"
...
What is this even for?!
Who am I giving my soul to?!
Is this all there is left...? Shouting in a void to myself...?
Becoming more hopeless and jaded and defeated...?
Locked away from things I actually want to do because funny numbers too small?!
Everyone else is so young and talented. They grind harder and faster. They are better. They can do everything.
I'm too slow. I suck. I'm not good enough. I'll never be good enough... No matter how hard I try... I'll never get to do what I love for a living...
Nothing matters anymore...
I'm so bone deep tired...
My head is foggy. My heart is empty.
I don't know if I have anything left to give anymore...
Maybe I should quit for good this time...
...
Game Over.
Retry?
[Give up Forever.]
➤[Try again.]
Occasionally when I'm writing one of these posts, midway through it turns into a vent. I try to keep venting to a minimum, and if the vent ratio is too high I won't post it.
Then I ask "why does it happen? why so dramatic?".
When talking about the process of creation, it's natural that some of the frustrations will leak out.
People often talk about all the perks of creating, the success stories, the highlight reels. But there's also the art block, the self doubt, the failures, the crappy shots you delete instantly after taking them.
I debated deleting the last section, because "maybe it's too whiny", "maybe it distracts too much", "maybe it's too repetitive". But sometimes maybe it's okay to be whiny. Maybe that vent piece helps someone else feel less alone. Maybe they don't feel like the only one going through it.
You know why I used to like emo music? (and still occasionally indulge)
Yes it could be over the top, and whiny, and "woe is me". But some nights you're up and can't sleep, and nothing feels okay, and you want to whine about how not fair it is for awhile. You listen to a song that talks about breaking down, or a breakup, or people who don't get it, and you feel connected to someone. Even if you'll never meet them, even if they'll never meet you, through music and art we can connect through space and time. I think that's beautiful.
Sometimes when I'm in a funk, I'll read some Stoic quotes. You start thinking "everything sucks, it's not going to be okay, it's only getting worse, there's nothing I can do about this!". But then you read some of these quotes from over 2,000 years ago, and you realize human problems are still human problems. Humans want to be with people they love, and complain about jerks, and gossip, and create cool things, and struggle through this world together. The situations and technology may change, but the human spirit is still doing it's thing.
I think that to counter the lack of control of attention in devices that do everything, we will see single-use devices return.
This doesn't have to mean only old fashioned CD-players, or iPods, but something slightly new. We have more tech available now than back then. We could have a device that combines the old and new. There are a handful out there, but the market isn't quite buzzing with options yet.
And really, sometimes you don't need to fix what isn't broken. If doing it the old fashion way works, you don't have to jam it with smart features. And if someone is using FOMO on you, try to question it. "What am I missing out on? What am I really getting from this? What am I sacrificing for this? Who is really benefitting here?"
Lately this word keeps coming up over and over and over again.
"Intentional".
Intentional viewing, intentional listening, intentional living.
As the rise of passive gets bigger and bigger, we see a reverse growing demand for the intentional. Yes choosing every single thing is exhausting, but too much passiveness can be exhausting too.
I don't think that the internet is the first to encourage passiveness. Background radio without listening and background TV without viewing are older forms of this situation.
So what does minimalism have to do with it? I've followed various minimalist things over the past decade. Minimalism was the trendy thing to do and be.
Minimalist design, minimalist items, minimalist homes, minimalist living.
This felt like a natural response to a culture of excess.
Too many choices. Too much clutter. Too much to-dos. Too much media. Too much notifications. Too much noise.
However, we've reached an opposite extreme point. Instead of a competition of who can have the most, it's a competition of who can have the least.
What I originally thought was a simple and quick switch, turned into a much more complicated subject. (I'll include some links to read more about it later.)
Then I thought, "what can we do? If one is too much, and one is too little, what else is there?". Again, I saw the word "intentional". That it's not about having a specific number of things, but being intentional about what we let into our lives. I thought "That's it! I want to be more intentional!".
By the way I included the term "intentional-ism" for clarity sake, but I don't think we need to label everything. We label things because it makes it easier to search for on a computer. Besides "intentional-ism" is already claimed by other topics. You don't need to label yourself as anything or join an online fandom about it to do this. It's all about making specific choices and trying to be happier with them.
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