we used to have words for people without a sense for media analysis, we called them philistines or dilettantes or, more recently, posers, because people consuming media uncritically without reflecting on it or navigating their feelings towards it is a tale as old as time.
it used to be just a way to elevate yourself and your pretensions over the slavering masses addicted to daytime television because you, o artiste, read bukowski and watched my dinner with andre and understood most of the words. but really for a long time thats all there was. i imagine a lot of greeks felt the same way after seeing medea and noticing how many of their countrymen thought she was just such an irrational bitch and jason was so hot and dreamy.
the difference now i think is the sheer scope of media available for consumption without really having to do anything to get to it, or go through it, or think about it. netflix has an entire category of shows specifically for playing in the background while you do something else. cozy farming and life sim games have gotten extremely popular as a contrast to our decidedly uncomfortable and increasingly isolated real lives. and a lot of us do just want to turn our brains off and watch two guys hit each other over the head with hammers for an hour before the dread inevitably seeps back into our minds. like, i get it. its getting dark out there. but eventually, for your own sake, you are gonna have to turn your brain back on and learn to determine the difference between something that was made by an independent creator who wants you to find all their little tricks and references, and who would like you to think about what theyre saying; and mass-market big-budget shovelware meant for young kids and hospital televisions. its just good for you to train your mind to hold all this complexity in it without getting scared, and to realize that most people are not, in fact, going to explain themselves to you, and that the convolution is the point, and untangling it is fun. like, it really is that deep.
and im not saying you have to analyze the themes and motifs of two guys hitting each other over the head with hammers or, god forbid, the erotic tension. nor am i saying its necessarily bad to consume fun easily-digestible media, i used to watch marvel movies too. i just want you to spend an extra 10 seconds thinking critically about what you see before you tell that independent creator to kill themselves.
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