Overconsumption of Undercooked Content.

Do you still watch television?
Do you read a newspaper? A magazine? Does your information come from a physical source, or do you consume content in a digital buffet?

I imagine using the term anachronistically – even a single generation ago. Tell someone in 2001 that they were consuming content and they would likely punch you for making a fat joke. Before the social media explosion, the term content meant something very different.

I bring this up to highlight a fundamental difference in how we see entertainment today versus just a few years ago. Content was not consumed – it was watched. Witnessed. Observed. Remembered. It gave what we saw a certain gravity of permanence. Because if someone paid to put it on television, or on the radio – or put it into print – there must be an importance to it. Who would waste money on shouting something that stupid?

Once it was free, however … every idiot could start shouting. And shout, we did (apologies to a few dozen hundred subreddits).

For the last two decades, anyone can say anything to everyone. Loudly. It has not been pleasant. But it has been enlightening. Modern influencer culture is built on an entirely ephemeral structure of digestible bits of content. They aren’t real. We know that. They aren’t experts. We know that,  too. But we watch them for eighteen to twenty-six seconds at a time, and we feel comforted by their refreshing take on something we had previously considered frivolous – or never considered at all. An easy little snack of an idea.

Don’t want to ruin your dinner, after all.