The next five years will be wilder than the last fifty.
Looking forward, the next five years will redefine entertainment content and popular media more radically than the last fifty.
After securing your domain and hosting, you can set up your blog. Most hosting services offer easy installations of popular blogging platforms like WordPress.
If you're using WordPress, after installation, you'll:
As a consumer, how do you survive (and thrive) in the firehose of entertainment content and popular media?
Practice Curated Consumption.
Don't let the algorithm dictate your diet. Seek out critics, curators, and friends whose taste you trust. Turn off autoplay. Choose active viewing over passive scrolling.
Value Depth Over Breadth.
It is better to watch one film that changes your soul than to watch thirty TikToks that empty your brain. Seek out "slow media"—long-form journalism, indie films, and classic literature.
Protect Your Data.
Remember: If the entertainment content is free, you are the product. Understand that the algorithm is designed to addict, not to satisfy. Set time limits.
Support Independent Creators.
The health of popular media depends on diversity of thought. Subscribe to a Substack writer. Buy a local artist’s album on Bandcamp. Patreon a podcaster. The more we bypass the corporate gatekeepers, the healthier the ecosystem.
For a century, the "gatekeepers" of popular media were studio heads, editors, and record executives. They decided what was good. Today, the gatekeeper is a piece of code.
The algorithms of YouTube, Spotify, and TikTok have become the world's most powerful curators. They don't just recommend entertainment content; they generate it. If the algorithm favors "face-forward talking points with a 7-second hook," creators adapt. If it penalizes pauses, the "pause" disappears from speech.
This has led to a new aesthetic: Meta-Media. The most popular entertainment content today is often content about other content. Reaction videos to trailers. Breakdowns of lore. "Anti-cringe" compilations. We spend more time watching people talk about The Last of Us than we do watching The Last of Us itself.
The next five years will be wilder than the last fifty.
Looking forward, the next five years will redefine entertainment content and popular media more radically than the last fifty.
After securing your domain and hosting, you can set up your blog. Most hosting services offer easy installations of popular blogging platforms like WordPress.
If you're using WordPress, after installation, you'll: vdsblog.xxx
As a consumer, how do you survive (and thrive) in the firehose of entertainment content and popular media?
Practice Curated Consumption.
Don't let the algorithm dictate your diet. Seek out critics, curators, and friends whose taste you trust. Turn off autoplay. Choose active viewing over passive scrolling.
Value Depth Over Breadth.
It is better to watch one film that changes your soul than to watch thirty TikToks that empty your brain. Seek out "slow media"—long-form journalism, indie films, and classic literature. The next five years will be wilder than the last fifty
Protect Your Data.
Remember: If the entertainment content is free, you are the product. Understand that the algorithm is designed to addict, not to satisfy. Set time limits.
Support Independent Creators.
The health of popular media depends on diversity of thought. Subscribe to a Substack writer. Buy a local artist’s album on Bandcamp. Patreon a podcaster. The more we bypass the corporate gatekeepers, the healthier the ecosystem.
For a century, the "gatekeepers" of popular media were studio heads, editors, and record executives. They decided what was good. Today, the gatekeeper is a piece of code. If you're using WordPress, after installation, you'll: As
The algorithms of YouTube, Spotify, and TikTok have become the world's most powerful curators. They don't just recommend entertainment content; they generate it. If the algorithm favors "face-forward talking points with a 7-second hook," creators adapt. If it penalizes pauses, the "pause" disappears from speech.
This has led to a new aesthetic: Meta-Media. The most popular entertainment content today is often content about other content. Reaction videos to trailers. Breakdowns of lore. "Anti-cringe" compilations. We spend more time watching people talk about The Last of Us than we do watching The Last of Us itself.
