Escape the Stream
Hello again.
I took a month off from writing for a number of reasons. First, I wasn’t sure what to even say anymore. How many times can I write about the worst people in the world before I lose my mind? To think about writing another “Trump is Terrible”, “More Mass Shootings”, or “Republicans Suck” post made me exhausted. I feel like you probably get the point. And if you don’t… I dunno. Maybe stop coming here and get yourself tested. Second, I have been working on a different project and by “working on” I mean occasionally thinking about it and buying web domains. Third, work has been particularly stressful (really that applies to life in general) and I’ve been too preoccupied to write anything good.
I’ve also been spending WAY too much time staring at screens. You may recall that several months ago I deleted social media apps off my phone. It felt good! But it didn’t take long for me to find workarounds. Instead of the twitter app, I go to their mobile site. I never got rid of reddit, always classifying it as something other than social media because I have never posted on it. I’m just a lurker. And Instagram made its way back onto my phone in the last month because of the aforementioned new project. I spend so much time on IG. I love it. My wife and I send funny videos to each other all day. It’s pretty much our love language.
But I can’t help feeling like social media is beginning to affect my brain again. Like right there. I wasn’t sure if it was affect or effect. I’ve never struggled with that before. And yet I had to just google it (I was wrong in what I’d originally put down, sadface). Not just social media though. Screens in general. Because when I’m not staring at the little one in my pocket (said the actress to the bishop) I’m staring at the big one in my living room. Or game room. Or wherever I am. I feel surrounded by screens. I’m looking at one right now! THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE.
There was a time when streaming services were hailed as a cheaper alternative to cable or satellite TV. Customers would be able to FINALLY pay for only the content they wanted to watch. It was a novel idea and Netflix put together a pretty great collection of content together. So everyone subscribed to Netflix. YouTube tried to get into the action since millions of people used their site every second. They didn’t have a ton of success. But by cramming their free videos with 3-4 ads, they slowly got people to pony up the $10/month or whatever it is. Amazon added videos and music to their Prime service. Hulu came out and promised shows from FOX, ABC, NBC, and many others. So everyone subscribed to that. Then Disney+, Paramount+, Discovery+, AppleTV+, Plus+, Plus++ and so forth. Now I’m spending money every month to subscribe to services for which I will never have time to actually watch. But I have to subscribe to almost all of them otherwise I won’t be able to watch what I want. AND I MUST BE ABLE TO WATCH WHAT I WANT. This is 2023 (soon) and gosh darn it I will HAVE IT.
I’m so sick of it though. I feel overwhelmed by the screens. Not by the screens themselves but by the choices they contain. With the push of a button, 18 different streaming options jump out at me. Should I watch fail videos on YouTube? A classic show like Seinfeld on Netflix (or is it Hulu or… where is Seinfeld again?) Maybe something new on HBOMax, which is not a combination of HBO and Cinemax. Truly a lost branding opportunity if I’ve ever seen one. Maybe catch up on a show from TV on Hulu. Or should I watch sports on ESPN+? Oh, I know, I’ll check out that documentary on Netflix. Eh, on second thought, that might bum me out. What about Picard on Paramount+? Even though the first season was largely dogshit the second season seemed cool. Q is back!
On and on and on it goes. There are too many choices now! Time is precious and limited and I want to enjoy whatever I choose. But unless it’s something I’ve already seen, I can’t know that’s what is going to happen. Take Abbott Elementary for example. I thought the first season was great. It was funny and had interesting characters. But the second season? It kind of sucks. It doesn’t really make sense as a show anymore. What was once a commentary on modern public education has become a madcap implausible attempt at an Office ripoff. How much longer should I keep watching until I give up? (I got to the Halloween episode for the record).
I think that this is the point. If media companies overwhelm us with choices and keep pumping out endless amounts of entertainment, we can never feel like we’re DONE. In the olden days, you were DONE watching TV when the show was over. Or there wasn’t anything on NBC, ABC, Fox, or CBS that night. Or it was the summer and all that was on was reruns. But now? Everything is available all the time. We’re told that we deserve it, that we’ve earned it, that we NEED it. But I am not sure we do. Will I really miss Netflix? Or Hulu? Or Disney+? What if I stopped watching all of them? What would that even look like? Evenings of talking to my wife, listening to music, and reading books? What am I, a fucking nerd? I’m not doing that.
Maybe I would be happier. Maybe my brain could stop racing for a minute. Maybe I would find something relaxing in there. So I am going to give it a try. One time each week we are going to have Records and Reading Night. Our phones will be in another room. We’ll be able to kick back and read a book. We’ll take turns picking albums (even though my wife will only choose three records out of the thousands I own). In full disclosure, I do most of my reading on a Kindle. Not a fun one though, one of the boring ones with processors from 1984 and no color. It is technically a screen but I think it’ll be alright for our purposes.
I’ll let you know how it goes. Maybe we’ll do more of it. If you do something similar with your family, reach out and let me know what you do and how it goes! I need a break from media. I need a break from choices. I need to get out.
I need to escape the stream.