Does “slop” media have its place?
“Let people enjoy things” seems to be the only phrase that echoes around in the empty skulls of those obsessed with what can be described as nothing other than media slop. This style of content that used to be constrained to reality TV and the dark depths of social media has begun bleeding into film and scripted television, resulting in masses of—for lack of better words—‘low brow’ material. The unavoidability of poorly written shows and cash grab films highlights a shift in our brain rotted culture; corporations know that the average consumer simply wants background noise, so they no longer give substance. They pump out low effort, high profit cinema that is bound to be watched by enough people to be deemed successful. Ultimately, the want or ability to be appreciative of art has decreased rapidly and our standards for what qualifies as good content has unfortunately followed the same trajectory.
With our brains becoming slaves to social media algorithms, there is no doubt that iPhone usage is a major contributor to these recent trends. Social media has normalized easy, mindless content which counters the prior need to intentionally search for something to watch. Sifting through hundreds of titles and selecting the one that appeals the most makes the viewing experience feel more enjoyable, almost like a reward. The constant minute long dopamine hits that apps like TikTok and Instagram feed us breed laziness, forcing our brains to now only process oversimulating and brainless content. Media has become less nuanced and interpretive because no one can pay attention long enough to decipher complex stories anymore. Viewers are no longer expected to pick up on subtext, instead writers spoon feed us plot, resulting in content that is lacking serious depth.
This quality decline is also an inherent result of our capitalistic society and the monetization of art. Show runners want to maximize pay outs and to do so they create something initially good, build up a loyal fanbase and then churn out however many cashgrabs they can knowing that it will be profitable. Take the Scream franchise for example, the first few movies were well written with fleshed out storylines and engaging characters, but the most recent films with a new main cast seem to be created with the sole intent of being cash grabs. Even so, viewership didn’t drop and profit was made, signalling to producers that this strategy is acceptable and lucrative.
To remedy this, I fear we must become the very thing we hate: pretentious. I don’t mean the “name five songs” or “my favorite movie is a French noir from 1932” kind of pretentious. I simply mean being more selective and critical of the shows and films we watch. Nowadays, it has become so widely frowned upon to be mean, but we need to be mean in order to institute change. By avoiding media slop and turning our attention to “high brow” content, we are indicating to corporations that that is what we want and therefore forcing them to create better content.
I suppose the reason why we can’t simply “let people enjoy things” is because their behavior is directly affecting those who want to interact with and appreciate “real art”. Of course, complex and interesting media is still being produced, but indie projects that take on this role tend to lack funding or a big production company backing them. Money that could be used to fund these creative endeavors is instead being put towards a $400 million Donkey Kong vs Shrek. Our current culture is obsessed with creating remakes and reboots, tired, played out content that already exists in abundance.
I will admit that easily digestible, guilty pleasure media can be highly entertaining. Not everything needs to be complex and created for the purpose of analysis, but it gets to a point where the majority of new media has become soulless, repetitive and pointless. Personally, I don’t want to be subject to three minute long episodes of AI-generated Fruit Love Island when I scroll on TikTok or a promotion for another unnecessary season of XO Kitty when I open Netflix to watch Sex and the City. I like art. I like studying and rewatching and understanding art, so I ultimately want to consume media not only as a form of entertainment, but also as art. I believe it is, therefore, nonnegotiable that we take an intentional opposition to this content in order to preserve art in its truest form.