By: Shunsuke Higuchi | Staff Writer
I. Dominance of “Massive Consumption” type Social Media
Fast-paced, content-packed online posts like TikTok, Instagram Stories, and YouTube Shorts have become immensely popular over the past few years, especially among younger generations. Most videos have gone through sharp editing: adding subtitles, filters, sound effects, etc., and are most likely 10 seconds or less than one minute at most. The trend is created by a synergistic effect, where consumers want to get better and more helpful content quickly, and creators want to increase their followers by creating great content. As a result, there is stiff market competition among creators who want to capture the users’ attention and support. To earn likes and ad fees or sometimes satiate their self-esteem, creators tend to boost their content by making it visually striking, buzz-worthy, and information-heavy. This style, where enormous amounts of information are compressed into less than one minute, like TikTok and Instagram Stories, entirely coincides with the demand of younger people who prioritize time and cost performance more than anything. Those platforms have become an intense battlefield for creators, pushing them to produce time-efficient and entertaining content.
For example, on Instagram Stories, many people post memorable experiences they consider most “valuable,” such as pictures of trips, scrumptious foods, and photos with friends. They often cut out a “climactic” moment of their everyday life to maximize the value of the posts and then post eye-catching content. Consequently, users are agitated by numbers such as likes and followers and thus try to post more attention-grabbing content, leading to the maximization of online content and increase in quality. We can look at numerous accounts that introduce famous spots like nice cafes or stylish restaurants as another instance. They offer helpful information with many photos and detailed captions for free. Those types of accounts cover virtually every genre of our lives, from everyday life hacks, sports news, art critics, cute animals, and workout menus. However, while it has become much easier than ever before to access others’ experiences considered unique or valuable by viewing information that won the competition, there are still an infinite amount of experiences we’ve never had before on the Internet, such as countries we’ve never traveled or activities we’ve never tried before. Thus, many people tend to feel obliged to explore something new non-stop rather than genuinely appreciate the raw experiences they actually experienced. They think, “I must go to this place because my friends went there.” Indeed, a considerable number of youngsters consider posting photos of themselves going to famous spots on social media as the primary purpose of their leisure. Still, the number of experiences they have in reality only grows gradually. In contrast, the number of experiences they realize they haven’t had will infinitely keep expanding as they continue exploring social media. This reality creates a striking gap between online information and the reality they live, making many people suffer from cooped-up feelings, anxiety, and depression. Understandably, people are inclined to post something special rather than their actual, down-to-earth, everyday lives because an unspecified number will see their posts. Sadly, being able to see other people’s posts quickly makes people unsatisfied as they often unknowingly compare them to their own experiences, which should be unique and most valuable no matter what. The situation seems like a sheer travesty because social media, whose purpose is to share thrilling experiences or feverish moments, is so convenient that it reverses and dilutes those valuable adventures in reality.
TikTok or YouTube Shorts examples:
- The “How to Cook Like a Michelin Chef” video offers the necessary ingredients, cooking tools, and each process in 30 seconds.
- The “Do-Not-Do-This in this Country” video explains cultural differences that often confuse people outside the region.
- The “One-Minute Highlight of a Famous Person’s Career” video introduces the life of a significant figure.
Although these types of videos have become a common occurrence in social media today, this content would be created and aired only by a limited number of traditional media like TV stations with a moderate time lag to deliver to the audience, costing a fair amount of money and time. Today, these types of videos with dense content are aired on multiple platforms as a less than one-minute piece of information despite all the processes and efforts. Other countless accounts will do the same, and a myriad of content will keep spreading. Consequently, in the modern era, information that contracts only its essence reaches the audience at an incredible speed and allows people to access information from broad genres faster than ever.
II. “Double Speed” System of Streaming Services
In addition to massive content consumption, such as apps like Instagram or TikTok, most video distribution websites like YouTube or Netflix usually have a speed system. This system allows users to watch something at 1.5x or 2.0x speed. For example, if you turn the double speed on, you will finish watching a 50-minute show in 25 minutes. Today, many people use this system to consume as much content as possible among an infinite amount of entertainment. It may be efficient and helpful to use the system for content that aims to convey an objective fact, like broadcast news. However, some people apply this technology to entertainment, much to my surprise. For example, manga is popular in Japan and is one of the most common forms of entertainment. Some people even “double speed” reading this medium. Let’s say we read a long, but currently popular manga consisting of dozens of volumes. First, it is expensive for many people to buy comic books, so they usually go to a manga café* (a ubiquitous entertainment facility where you pay hourly and can read any manga available while relaxing in a booth). However, some don’t even bother to go to a manga café, perhaps because they are simply lazy or don’t want to spend any money. So, instead, they search for an hour or two synopsis on YouTube and watch it at double speed. This way, they finish “reading” the series in less than an hour. Such is not limited to manga, for many people search for the plot and ratings of movies and dramas in advance and carefully select what they will try. Once they pick a “worthy” one to give a shot, they play them at 1.5x speed while using 30-second skips. Moreover, they skip “unnecessary” scenes such as the prologue or everyday-life scenes and only watch essential scenes such as the conclusion or climax. To the older generations’ surprise, the younger generations consume massive amounts of content every day through speeding and skipping. Some people only check short clips or rating websites of popular shows to get the gist enough to catch up with the trend.
Fast Movies: A few years ago, fast movies posed controversial topics that characterize modern society’s fast-paced, almost out-of-control, massive consumption aspect. Fast movies refer to shorter-length videos that sum up the story of a movie using the actual footage of the movies and have gained enormous popularity among online audiences. The abundance of these videos created a ripple regarding intellectual properties and appreciation of film as art—fast movies are the epitome of modern people’s attitudes toward art, film, entertainment, and information in general. Modern people do not necessarily appreciate a traditional 2-hour-long experience since it feels “too long” for them, and they want to know “it” more quickly. It is no wonder that so-called attention-span issues have been brought up among younger generations, who struggle with concentrating on a single activity and get distracted by other irrelevant matters, given their current styles of entertainment consumption.
An example of a manga cafe.
III. Declining Necessity of Imagination and Romance due to the Eradication of Process
The development of technology and change in society have increasingly eliminated time, effort, loss, and risks that used to be necessary since we have always pursued seamlessness and convenience in our lives. Here are some examples:
We often hear elderly people reminisce about their old days; stories of how they spent hours trying to reach their destination with paper maps in their hands when they first visited the place. However, this process seems “futile” to modern people’s sensibility because we rarely get lost with our smartphones, and even Google Maps automatically tells us the shortest route. Still, the feeling of accomplishment of getting to the destination was way more significant back then.
Another example is that before cell phones came out, couples often could not meet their partner on their date because they failed to show up on time and at the place. In that case, that day went for nothing, and they had to reschedule. We can say this is a “risk,” and we eliminated the issue by inventing a cell phone. Nowadays, we never fail to meet people and comfortably spend time waiting by playing smartphone games or perusing social media. However, even though inconveniences and obstacles existed back then, they were the factors that made the events all the more memorable in most cases. Even if the date were the same as today’s, it would emotionally impact the people more significantly than today’s couple. In other words, the challenge that comes with each action has so dramatically decreased due to technology that the level of reward to accomplishment has become increasingly relative.
In addition, back then, experiences used to be told only through limited mediums such as verbal speech or physical writing, which have relatively lower reproducibility of information compared to our modern mediums such as videos or images. Let me use *Doraemon (1969 – 1997) as an instance. Doraemon is one of the most famous Japanese comic series and undoubtedly one of the biggest icons in J-pop culture. The long-seller manga often starts with a scene where the main characters gather in a local park, and one rich boy boasts about his high-end life. Then, Nobita, the protagonist, gets jealous of his friend’s experience and asks Doraemon to solve the situation with his magical gadgets. The point is when children hear some wealthy kid’s story, there is only his verbal information, and thus, his friends must imagine, “What is it like to lie on the beach in Hawaii as he says?” “How awesome would it be to take a ride in the supercar he owns?” However, today, we no longer need to explain our experiences through words since we have smartphones that can allow us to live vicariously just by looking. If Instagram were available in the world of Doraemon, children would not have to gather physically; everyone can see their friend’s posts online regardless of where they are. While we can now access the “valuable” information or experience only rich people like him can have and enjoy, we no longer imagine such experiences as these characters do.
The same goes for reading books. We enjoy reading with our vast imaginations because books are, in a sense, an incomplete medium with an incomplete catalyst: letters. There is a process of reading and spending time doing it, creating a sort of anticipation. Thus, such anticipation will become a moving experience for you when you go to the places related to the book you have read, leading to a long-lasting and impactful memory. Even if the reality does not necessarily match your expectations, the trip will remain meaningful and will be a good memory. This logic applies to stars. Celebrities used to be hidden in a mysterious veil due to their limited exposure to the media and the protection of private life, creating a mystique about them among fans. For example, appearances by Hollywood stars were rare because they were only seen on red-carpet interviews or late-night talk shows. Thus, people tended to project their ideal personalities onto them by making up for their limited knowledge with imagination. Nowadays, celebrities must be relevant on social media and many other platforms; thus, they cease to be a scarce commodity. As a result, people nowadays are more likely to chew out or be upset by their political hot takes on X than admire them as a perfect hero, although their beliefs might have been the same all along. In short, society used to be more inconvenient, with more limitations and fewer options, but people romanticized stars all the more and spiritually enriched their lives all the more.
IV. The Loss of Mystique and the Virginity of Adventure
Back to the story of YouTube, the platform was popular with videos such as “I’ve put Mentos into Coca-Cola” in its infancy (the drink will explode by chemical reaction). Wherein a dude that could live next door tries something kids would want to do but can’t, and uploads the video just for fun, and the audience loved it. However, as entertaining as those videos were, the budget and scale of the videos were nothing compared to TV shows since the creators back then were as good as ordinary people financially. Nevertheless, some YouTubers today are very wealthy and upload videos that couldn’t have been possible, even in the wildest dreams, such as “I Rode in World’s Most Expensive Rolls Royce!” and “I Drank the Finest Wine in the World: Romanee Conti!” and “I Played the Rarest Musical Instrument: Stradivarius…”
Those over-the-top videos may have been possible only on TV, but these types of content are now available 24/7 worldwide for free. This phenomenon represents what is called the democratization of information, which allows essentially everyone to access the content they could have only imagined or could never even have imagined otherwise. We can now quickly pay a virtual visit to big cities like NY, London, or even Tokyo, which are costly to travel and too distant from your region. Similarly, there is less and less necessity to imagine stars as someone who lives in a flamboyant and dream-like world due to the democratization of information that has enabled everyone to access all the once-closed information that was exclusive to the community. Online platforms are so filled with objective data like numbers such as views or subscribers that there is little room for romance to thrive in people’s minds. For example, when you go to a fancy restaurant that is trending or a famous world heritage spot, you are less likely to experience a fresh, exciting, and genuinely unique adventure for the first time in a literal sense since you’ve likely already seen it online. What is more horrifying, in some cases, is that people feel disappointed by the gap between reality and the Internet, whose visuals are often boosted by processing like video editing and filters.
There always used to be “the unknown” in new experiences in the past, but nowadays, we can quickly and so often see the unknown without even trying. Even though the Internet and social media are so convenient and enchanting to let us experience the unknown, they cruelly deprive us of the value and atmosphere of raw or real experiences. Human experiences used to include “singularity,” “rarity,” and “sacredness,” and they had, as it were, a certain “virginity” in a sense that you had never experienced or known before. I believe this virginity of experience is what moved people from the bottom of their hearts and etched those memories into their minds. In the 20th century, an era with almost no Internet demanded people go through many processes or pay a reasonable time and price for any experience. Those processes would create intense anticipation toward something they are into. Such expectations would then nurture a kind of romance in their hearts, building a personal connection to an experience. Such sentiment would finally culminate in a particular moment as a compelling story. On top of it, many people experienced events at the same timeline and in the exact place back then, physically and emotionally sharing the moment. Later, those people would share their experiences, and sometimes, what they saw became larger than life as our minds can exaggerate a positive experience looking back. By doing so, something truly thrilling and memorable, in other words, “culture,” was born and flourished in a distinct and integrated fashion. This is how and why there was a clear cultural zeitgeist for each era of the 20th century. For reasons mentioned from I to IV, we have significantly fewer “original” experiences in the modern day that resonate with many of us in a true sense. As this trend continues, the younger generations who keep consuming content at an explosive speed might spoil their experiences in the near future. It is not certain, but one thing for sure is that it is becoming excruciatingly difficult for something to be so impactful that it is etched into everyone’s memory in modern society since we can too easily get the payoff without the effort in the 21st century.
However, it is not necessarily evil to experience something indirectly before you do it directly. For example, it is wonderful for an older man who is confined to bed due to old age to be able to see the scenery of foreign countries he has wanted to visit yet has never been able to. It is amazing for children who love European soccer and live in developing countries to be able to watch the Premier League through live-streaming services. In other words, we have invented a system of entertainment that allows us to enjoy secondary experiences that have been diluted through social media and the Internet from the original adventure. Now, people all over the world can share the watered-down version instead. Also, we cannot deny the merit of this technology since society has many types of people. Some people would say, “It is way better to watch an actual game in person than watch on YouTube!” or “What you actually experience is worth a hundred times more than what you learn through books or online.” However, in reality, not many have the means and time to experience the real thing, and it is natural for ordinary people to think, “Well, I wanna try to give it a shot by watching the digest first.” While everyone now can quench our entertainment thirst, since we have become so accustomed to juicy content along with the loss of virginity of experience, as I mentioned above, the world is witnessing quite a strange era where people are cooped up, dissatisfied, or even depressed despite all the access to entertainment, inspiration, convenience, pleasure, and the possibility to explore something new.
A few years ago, I purchased an issue of *Shonen Jump magazine for the first time in many years because they held a special collaboration between *One Piece and *Detective Conan. That day, I put the book in my room without reading it, having seen the cover online, and bought it as a sort of memorabilia. Weeks later, I surprised myself by realizing I had left it nonchalantly in the corner of my shelf and had almost forgotten about it. For if this crossover had happened in my childhood, it would have been the most awesome experience of my life. I would definitely have read it until it got worn out, discussed it with my friends, and thoroughly enjoyed our conversations about it. If you are unfamiliar with these titles, just imagine a cross-over between two of your favorite franchises; how would you feel? However, sadly enough, I couldn’t feel the excitement that I would have felt if I was younger. Perhaps this is because things now move at a different pace than they did when I was growing up. Or maybe I simply matured. Whatever the case is, this little incident made me ponder the relationship between entertainment and individuals and the meaning of entertainment in modern society. Entertainment in general, such as movies, manga, or video games, should be evolving daily since creators constantly research trends or data, analyze works from the past, and adopt marketing strategies. Technology development, particularly visual graphics and audio quality, also keeps evolving, as seen in 8K TVs or ultra-high-definition audio or VR goggles. However, I wonder if I am the only person who feels entertainment hasn’t evolved for its own good because the emotional resonance in people brought about by entertainment seems to be decreasing as a whole despite the mind-blowing evolution of technology.
On a different note, there is a growing concern that there are generally *fewer and fewer original products in the entertainment industry in recent years. For example, major film studios continue making sequels, reboots, or spinoffs of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Disney movies and other blockbuster titles. Likewise, large video game companies like Nintendo keep producing similar games based on already-established franchises like Super Mario, Pokémon or Zelda. Both industries heavily lean on nostalgia by reintroducing classic titles with updated visuals. Creating remakes is not necessarily wrong because it makes sense from a business perspective. It is always a sure bet to use pre-existing brand names to gain a return on investment, and it is often risky for international corporations to start a completely new franchise with a high budget, given the global market situation. However, if they keep living off the fumes of the 20th century, the well of original content will eventually run completely dry, and more than anything, many of us wish to see something new or original come out of the era we live in.
As I described in parts I to II, nowadays, we see a virtually infinite amount of information that is extremely thick in content flying around all the time on our electronic devices. This phenomenon is what I’d like to call the Buffet of Content, meaning users can cherry-pick whatever dish of content they want. While some people seem to manage the plethora of information or even enjoy the broad menu of the digital buffet, others appear to have quite an unhealthy diet. TikTok, for example, provides videos automatically and one-sidedly and perpetually feeds users information nonstop, each of which has won a fierce popularity contest and is compressed into a whopping 10 seconds. As a consequence, it has become a daily routine for younger people to consume content that is far more than they can possibly chew, which I refer to as “the Gluttony of Information.” Imagine a Japanese conveyor belt sushi restaurant where a pair of sushi automatically comes to you, and you can select whatever sushi you want. Social media platforms like TikTok have become akin to a colossal conveyor belt sushi restaurant, constantly serving extravagant dishes such as fatty tuna sushi with caviar and foie gras with truffle. These luxurious pieces of sushi are consumed one after the other without even allowing customers time to truly savor them. In a place like this, you will never be satisfied with something simpler, like a regular spicy tuna roll, and could become desensitized to the original taste. I would like to refer to this phenomenon as ‘”No-Face Consumption,” inspired by the classic Japanese film Spirited Away.
From III and IV, the process that used to be necessary to experience new things has been essentially eradicated. There is a significant decrease in the necessity of imagination, and we are unlikely to encounter romance in our day-to-day lives more than ever. It seems natural that some people who use social media daily feel stressed by the glaring gap between reality and the virtual world. However, there might be something even worse that is going on in modern society other than feeling under pressure. Our emotional sensor, an intrinsic system that enables us to derive inspiration or emotional resonance from experiences, is possibly irrevocably compromised. The amount of daily information a modern person is exposed to is said to be equivalent to a month of the amount of info people who lived 300 years ago dealt with in that timeframe and that of a year of people who lived 1000 years ago in Japan. The volume of information smartphones and social media bring about is just inundating and surely unprecedented in the history of humanity. So, it may have surpassed the capacity of our brains to deal with information through meaningful perception of the world.
A drug overdose could be a helpful example to understand the logic here. It is reported that if you use hard drugs like cocaine or heroin, they generate an excessive amount of secretion of dopamine that makes the user get a feeling called head rush. The user then will experience a sense of euphoria. However, once the effect turns off, the person will feel total depression and despair and cannot be satisfied with their normal state, leading them to look like a zombie. If this is the case with modern people, in the worst-case scenario, no matter how significant a thing someone accomplishes or no matter if a magnificent art piece or song is born, the feat will never resonate with people who have become zombies full of apathy, and thus nothing can become part of the cultural zeitgeist. It sounds like a dystopia, but society is perhaps already becoming one.
Still, smartphones have a good side, too, as they enable us to gain necessary or helpful information like news, common sense, or historical facts. Also, online platforms have made it easier for us to find something interesting by exploring a wide variety of fields. We can catch up quickly with social trends that tend to change so soon by searching for them. As cliché as it sounds, it’s up to us whether we can benefit from those gadgets since technology is a double-edged sword. Nevertheless, it seems so many of us are trapped in the hole and have not figured out how not to let technology rule us but how to let ourselves conquer what we have created. If the technology that is supposed to enrich people’s lives by its convenience degrades our hearts and souls, which is the very sense to appreciate the richness of life, then isn’t it the greatest irony?
