When I was in high school, I was obsessed with TV. As ashamed as I am to admit it, watching Netflix was my number one pastime and my absolute favorite thing to do every day. I was loyal to my shows to the point where I was researching alternate plot lines, indulging in conspiracies, and waiting on the edge of my seat for each new episode or season. Things could not be more different now.
Nothing interests me anymore. I find it hard to connect to anything now, and while that may be a byproduct of growing up, I believe that my detachment from current television shows and movies is due to a significant decline in the quality of modern media.
I miss the intense emotional connection to plotlines and characters, as well as the time and effort taken to craft artful and meaningful stories. I fear that everything now is focused on relatability and hashtags and that successful shows are just cash grabs with lazy attempts at relating to today’s youth. Shows that are meant to appeal to my demographic of college women in their early-to-mid 20’s are written by the wrong people: people who are much older than me and only refer to their Instagram explore page for about twenty minutes before writing yet another movie about the mind-bending dilemma of having a “friend with benefits.” I’m sick of it. I don’t want memes and I don’t need the protagonists of these shows to relate to what was trending on Twitter most recently; I want relatable, timeless content with a soul and a meaning past making a quick buck on Netflix, Hulu, or whatever the hell else.
I refuse to believe that my attention span is causing this lack of interest in my life because as a college student, I can apply myself to the classes that I find most boring and make them seem interesting. For example, I hate biology lectures but I’m still able to sit through them and appreciate that I am learning how the world functions at a microscopic level. I can make BIS lecture more interesting than Netflix, and Netflix is supposed to entertain me! I pay for it.
That being said, if there is anything good out there let me know – I’ve stopped looking.