Drowning in Entertainment: The Age of Distraction
In a world dominated by social media, distractions are either in our faces or our peripherals. They affect productivity, ambition, social interactions, and most other aspects of our daily lives. How did this happen, and what does it mean for society long term?
Modern News Brings Information Without Context
When was the last time you turned on the news? For most of Gen Z, the answer can’t even be remembered. Information has found its way to audiences through various means such as Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. The issue here is that information is usually shared in bite-sized formats, which can be good for simple updates, but have further consequences when regarding more complex topics. Regardless, people want to scan and scroll, so any additional steps for users get ignored, and the 140-character headline is all that gets remembered. See the problem?
Visual/Audio Society
Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels have shifted the preferences of many users to video content over text-based content, and this shift has occurred at all age levels. Chances are you either know of or have an “iPad baby”. The term indicates how many parents approach keeping their children occupied or distracted – an iPad with a Baby Shark video. While successful in the short term, it may create barriers down the road when it comes to focus and attention span when doing text-based activities like reading or writing.
Entertainment = Valuable
The perception of value can change based on the person and context of a given situation – a disclaimer before you read my generalization. Recently, value has been solely associated and correlated with entertainment. The more entertaining something is, the more value it has. Conversely, if something is less entertaining, it’s seen as less valuable. This can be true in some instances, however, the problem lies in exclusively associating value with entertainment. Educational and Informational content can still be valuable, even if it isn’t entertaining.
Gen Z Loves Nostalgia Content
You know how people often look back on the past with “rose-tinted glasses”? That’s Gen Z, but all the time. There’s a constant obsession with reliving the past and attempting to recapture the energy of fond memories (some are too young to have those memories anyway). Trends such as flip phones, digital cameras, baggy outfits, Y2K aesthetics, etc. have all made comebacks in recent years thanks to this. The idea is fine in moderation, but the obsession with it threatens to become a distraction, likely stemming from people’s dissatisfaction with the present. But distractions aren’t solutions. How can you move forward if the only place you’re ever looking is behind you?
To hear more about this topic, check out oliSUNvia’s video below