We’re Living in the Age of Disposable Content
Last week I talked about how I’ve been having a bit of an existential crisis when it comes to the innovation happening in AI right now that means a robot can spam text onto the internet within seconds that makes about as much sense as the vast majority of things I’ve written on this blog over the past 13 years (yeah I know Medium isn’t that old, this blog started and still exists on Tumblr ).
And as someone who every year sets himself the yearly goal to upload 52 blogs, I really hate to say it but I think my bar for something that is blog worthy is going to have to properly go up in order to differentiate myself from the machines, so for an idea to be truly worthy of me writing 500 words it has to be a particularly insightful unique spin on something I’ve heard or actually an original thought which I’ve not stealing from somewhere else. (though of course it’s hard to tell these days with #content everywhere and there being nothing new under the sun).
But today I think I have a thought which I’m not just re-telling: We’re living in the age of disposable content.
I’m mostly talking about Netflix here, though the other streaming companies are 100% guilty of this as well. Most films and TV Shows these days are basically designed to only be watched once. If I open up Netflix right now the majority of shows I see in the “New Releases” or “Popular on Netflix” rows are dating shows or some form of Reality Series following a bunch of elite rich attractive people selling real estate or something.
And look, I get it. In a world basic shit like this can go viral, and where it probably costs an absolute fraction to pay a camera man and entice a bunch of Instagram influencers into letting you film them on a resort in Mexico for a month. I get it, you’re going to re-run that playbook a million times: Love Island, Love is Blind, The Ultimatum, The Circle, Too Hot to Handle, Perfect Match. That’s 6 fucking shows and honestly I couldn’t tell you the difference between any of them.
And I have to admit, my girlfriend and her friends are into these shows! (which might be why they’re top of my Netflix), and I’ve even watched a couple of them, they’re weirdly addictive! Every time I do the classic “oh I’ll catch it while I’m cooking or something”, to then hovering behind the couch pretending to not be into it but asking questions about what’s happening, to then finally giving up and being right next to my girlfriend and gossiping about the show at the next Happy Hour. It’s addictive shit, they’re all really attractive people and there’s drama!
But it’s such drivel. Want me to prove to you why?
How many times did you look at your phone during Breaking Bad? Were you scrolling Instagram during Succession? Checking Twitter during Game of Thrones? Stranger Things? Squid Games? No you weren’t, because those shows are actually interesting and it’s the sort of shit you paid attention to, and may well have rewatched since. Have you rewatched season 1 of Love Island? Of course you fucking haven’t. That shit is disposable. The watchability of that show was as disposable as the fame that the influencers got. They got 50,000 new Instagram followers, a makeup range and then went back to their fucking lives (at least until they got invited onto whatever the combination dating show was called).
It’s like media has taken the idea of disposable cameras and just decided to fuck with people’s lives for a month, film it, chuck it on the internet and move on.
Like have you seen the ultimatum? They make couple literally go on a break and go date other people, while all still hanging out and socializing every single day! If they don’t cheat then they’re not treating the experiment seriously enough and if they cheat then they FUCKING CHEATED. It’s pure and utter chaos, the producers of these shows are low key genius. Attractive + alcohol + cameras + insta famous = views on Netflix.
But nobody is going back to watching these shows. It’s absolute fucking drivel that was almost designed to be watched once. Disposable TV. That’s my original thought this week. Cheers.
2nd April 2023
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