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Run with the assumption that everything is always infinitely available, and become judicious with your attention. Boring podcast? Don't think twice, delete it.
by troad 4y ago
Run with the assumption that everything is always infinitely available, and become judicious with your attention. Boring podcast? Don't think twice, delete it. Good TV show, but not amazing? Move on, there's better out there. You won't even remember its name in a year. Book dragging on in the middle? Skip ahead.
Every now and again you'll find something you want to give a chance to, and for those things do slow down, take it in. But don't waste that on any random thing just because it's new and being pushed hard by some giant media conglomerate.
Or alternatively give it five-ten years before you engage with any cultural product. Time is a very effective filter for quality.
- falcolas 4y agoThis is the way. It’s perfectly acceptable to bounce off a book after five pages. Off a podcast with poor production quality. Off a song after the first measure. Tastes differ, so don’t feel bad if you dislike something the zeitgeist adores.
- ninkendo 4y agoBack when scarcity was a thing, the act of powering through with media you didn’t initially like was one of the primary ways of maturing your taste and learning to like new things. Only consuming media which hooks you instantly is a good way to achieve the media equivalent of a sugar-only diet. I don’t have an answer for this to be honest, it’s just an observation.
- cpach 4y agoIMHO this is especially true for classical music, which is generally less approachable than pop music.
- thewebcount 4y agoThat's certainly one way to look at it. I see it a little differently. With video games, for example, when I had to buy a game to see if I liked it, I'd mostly just buy the big hits that a lot of people liked or smaller games that got wide critical acclaim. But with a subscription gaming service, I can try out any game on the service without paying an additional fee, so I'm trying a wider range of games in genres I don't normally play. I've found some real gems I wouldn't have even considered previously if I'd had to buy them first to really get to know them. The radio was like that before streaming services. Don't know if you like country music? Just pop on the country station when you're alone in your car and try it out. If it doesn't work out, switch to hip hop or classical, or alternative. Worst case, you wasted 5 minutes of your time while you were driving anyway. Best case, you have a new genre of music to explore! That said, I'm don't have ADHD and am heavily skeptical of anything coming from big corps, so I already aggressively tune out most things, so maybe it's not that easy for others.
- falcolas 4y agoSee, were this true, my mother (who didn’t have the internet at all) would have a fine appreciation for country music and dancing. Because those were mostly all she had while growing up; she had plenty of time to learn appreciation for both. Obviously she didn’t. My father in turn never picked up a love for the beetles nor reading. So, while appealing to our lamentations about “kids these days”, your hypothesis is flawed. People, even in times of media scarcity, still developed loves and hates. Evolving your tastes is much more intentional than just not having a choice.
- ninkendo 4y agoYou’re misreading what I’m saying. I’m not saying: You’ll like anything if you give it time. I’m saying: There are things that you may not initially like, which you will like if you give it time. Which means that if you never give anything its proper time, you’re likely missing out on things you may have otherwise learned to appreciate.
- troad 4y agoI had typed out a response where I refer to the second two paragraphs of my reply above and elaborated on them, but a more interesting thought occurs: what is a sugar-only media diet? How does it differ from any other 'media diet'? Let's say you'll only ever keep watching if a film begins with an explosion. Surely, if this how the audience behaves, then every film produced will quickly converge on beginning with explosions. But if every film begins with explosions, maybe you become tired of all the explosions. Eventually you'll come to associate an explosion-heavy start with mediocre formulaic films, and your behaviour will reverse: maybe you'll now refuse to watch any film that begins with explosions. Surely it's all just an endless cycle of fashions and counter-fashions, culture and counter-culture? The studio gives us what we crave, and we eat it all up until we're sick and want something else, and then some avant garde artist gives us something else, and if it works and is popular then all the studios steal it and the cycle repeats? In as far as art isn't 'productive' per se - ars gratia artis and all that - to what end should you suffer through art you don't enjoy?
- hotpotamus 4y agoAs a child, I did the same thing with my family because video games were much more entertaining. As an adult, this hasn't changed all that much.