Film Theory on the Modern Internet

[DiffydaDude]

Today, I watched a video which made me and many others realize the whole root of why people are so hopeless and depressed nowadays. It talks about how, because theres so much on demand video, its caused a lot of problems for society. i think yall should watch it its pretty good and made me consider deleting my YT account.

Yall should definitely watch this, I think it's the best thing anyone can do really, if it means that the internet stops having thew vibe of one of those stereotypical political comics with a hamburger and guns and a bad take. Thats literally what the modern internet feels like for me.

[Cobra!]

This video honestly explains so much. Why I find it so hard to find meaningful connections, online or in real life.

I think this is made even worse when you don't use social media or anything like Youtube in any meaningful capacity. Feels like everything wrong with today's society always comes back to those as the cause.

The modern internet is destroying society.

EDIT: Just been shown this video about social media making us angrier, and generally bad for our mental health and figured it's worth sharing here. (I know it's Kurzgesagt, who has been under fire for selling out in the past, but this video does make a lot of sense.)

[Tadd]

Today, I watched a video which made me and many others realize the whole root of why people are so hopeless and depressed nowadays. It talks about how, because theres so much on demand video, its caused a lot of problems for society. i think yall should watch it its pretty good and made me consider deleting my YT account.

Yall should definitely watch this, I think it's the best thing anyone can do really, if it means that the internet stops having thew vibe of one of those stereotypical political comics with a hamburger and guns and a bad take. Thats literally what the modern internet feels like for me.

This is an ongoing problem just with the capitalistic model of the internet we have today. Like flat out, this is a result of the economic structures we have put in place. Searching this and other forums for youtube recs felt like my saving grace out of that sinkhole, as well as deleting my yt acc and using a different front-end like Libretube for android or free-tube for pc. They take away the algorithm, and make it a more self defined place, all of your own creation. You will still get youtube videos with the structure outlined in that video no doubt. Matpat himself says its the only way that they can guarantee business. Diving into smaller channels, however, avoids that problem. Either way, moderating your own usage of the internet, and being more cognizant of exactly what it is you are consuming is always a good thing, even if a video guilty of the same sins gives you that realization.

Internet mindfulness my beloved.

[wygolvillage]

That's an interesting video. I'm not usually too into MatPat videos but I found all the ideas about "pop culture" and in-groups dying as a concept to be interesting since it reflects how I feel pretty closely (then again I've never quite related to the mainstream). I thought he was going to leave it at the oversimplified point that we're all depressed because don't have a shared pop culture, but I was pleasantly surprised to see him expand into a more broad criticism of how capitalism alienates us all.

I wonder if one of the reasons that "personal web" spaces feel so homey despite having such a diverse population is because we all have a shared hobby to connect over?

And, just kind of rambling here, but even in fandom spaces that are built off of the idea pf relating over a shared interest I don't feel the "ubiquitous connection" with others MatPat is describing here. Maybe it's because of the specific ways in which social media encourages to treat "content" itself (including fandom content?) Like it's less that we don't watch all the same stuff, but that we're moreso expected to "consume" it.

Much to think about! Thanks for the link OP 

[glitchlynx]

This was a really interesting video. I've noticed this trend of everyone getting further and further into their own little 'media bubbles' but I didn't realize the numbers for TV viewing had changed so drastically over the past few decades... we really have nothing like that anymore. It seems a bit odd at first, that music and TV would have that big of an impact on our social lives. Obviously you can have friends with different interests, but it does make it so much easier to have a conversation if you can talk about things you've both seen.

I like that he brought up kpop, because that does feel like one of the closer things we have right now? I was actually involved in a kpop club briefly in college, and it felt like I was getting to experience just a bit of that 'shared pop culture'. You could turn to someone else at the meeting you'd never spoken to before and start up a conversation - "What groups do you like? I like ___ too! My favorite song by them is ____!" You can't really do that in most situations, because everyone's taste is so varied and the chance that someone will like the same bands as you are so slim...

Also, I think there's a generational gap at work here too. Sometimes I run into people my own age who have heard of the same bands I have, but people in my parent's generation will have never heard of them. Obviously, different generations have consumed different media since the invention of TV and radio, but at least everyone was still being exposed to the same stuff once in a while. Between streaming services giving everyone different media and different generations generally being on different social media platforms, there are very few new celebrities that everyone knows. I don't even know who is famous among people just a few years younger than me. Some of that is due to the fact that I've chosen to spend very little time on social media, but I was noticing this before I left.