I recently saw the film The Worst Person in the World. A Norwegian film about finding your way in life and the inevitable regrets one experiences by simply being alive. It took me some time to get into it since Norwegian is a deeply silly language; however, I did like the film and it did make a big impact on me.
The ending was perfectly melancholy, and as the credits rolled, I simply sat and looked at the credits, taking in everything. I think that is a hallmark of a good piece of work. Beforehand, I would always value this feeling of staring at the credits after a good movie or game, and not do anything. I would just sit there and try to process everything that had just happened. The book equivalent is properly reading the last page over and over again in a desperate attempt to hold on to a fleeting experience of awe.
When I finished the film, I considered moments of my own life. I looked back at everything I am and what I have accomplished. And then it happened, the little box in the corner signaling the next film will play in 5 seconds. FIVE SECONDS! Where did I even put the remote? Everything is dark as well. I just saw a movie after all. Now I’m panicking, trying to find the remote in the dark. I find it, but way too late, the other film has just started and i’m now a minute into a film that is clearly not as good.
Two days later, I saw another film, it was The Holdovers. It too was very good and all. It too had an emotional connection and then the same freaking thing happened. Why do we insist on forcing films down our throats as if it was content? It’s because greedy millionaires want to squeeze every penny out of every situation. If I stay on the streaming service, what pay more? IT’S A SUBSCRIPTION!
The problem is that instead of connecting with things on a deeper emotional level to ground out people and make them whole, we instead go for quick and shallow consumption. This is a digital problem. When I turn the last digital page of my E-book, it instantly pops up with a “more from the author” page. I have no choice. When I finish an audiobook, it goes straight into a preview.
Silence is such an important thing for humans to develop. Most people are not even capable of sitting alone in silence in a room. How do you grow without knowing what you want in life? We have a crisis of meaning, of course we do, you can’t find meaning if you are constantly bombarded with stimuli. We use podcasts and endless playlists to constantly drown out the silence.
Instead of making podcasts and content more like art, we have instead made art into content. Actually, that is not true art; the film is still good art, the medium around it is like content. If you don’t sit and connect to higher pieces by instantly move to the next one. Imagine going to a museum to see some of the most beautiful paintings, and you watch all the paintings on screen like an Instagram reel.
We are fostering a culture of apathy where good movies are not appreciated since the goal is to keep consuming. A common criticism you hear is that movies are bad now, well no shit they have to make so much junk to the endless content machine, it’s like saying most tik toks are bad now, well doh off course they are, they are made to be, and I don’t want to live in world with crap movies with the solve purpose is to simply “watch the next one”