The world is a consumerist landscape — people are always looking to get their hands onto something and the media they touch is no exception. Accompanying the rise of an endless availability of content for viewers to access instantaneously is leading the way for the skills utilized in media literacy to begin a steady decline.Â
Southern New Hampshire University states that “media literacy is the practice of taking in media messages and understanding their influence on your thoughts, feelings and behaviors.” It’s also important to mention that media literacy is a skill like any analytical skill. This means that there’s always a chance to increase, form, or expand your own personal media literacy skillset.Â
Despite how simple media literacy may seem, it’s declining amongst the population. This could be assumed to be, in part, due to the rapid evolution of technologies. Since 2022, tech has changed (primarily) due to AI, which is unsurprising. Nearly every conversation about tech nowadays revolves around AI, but think about this in regards to exactly how fast it’s changing: ChatGPT was introduced to the world in November 2022. The changes on media seen since ChatGPT’s introduction have been drastic. The evolution of AI has become sharp enough that even the most online and tech savvy people can be deceived by an AI video of bunnies on a trampoline.
Beyond interpretations of media, there is also a reflection of declining media literacy on the behavior of movie goers. 2023’s Oppenheimer was a prime example of this. Because of the Barbenheimer hype, people were watching both films in theaters, sometimes doing double features. The biggest factor in the issue that came from this: Oppenheimer clocks in at three hours, whilst Barbie clocks in at just about two hours. For many viewers who were seeing Oppenheimer for the viral moment, there were complaints that the three hour runtime was “too long,” resulting in viewers going on their phones during screenings. This created a new behavior for people to snark about online. In addition to concerns of movie theaters slowly dying out, this behavior re-emphasized how some hardcore proponents feel about the future of theaters: bleak. If behaviors like this become the norm, will the need for theaters continue to decrease — until they are nonexistent?
Movies aren’t the only space where media literacy is declining. It’s becoming a conversation online, primarily on BookTok, that some find books to have “too many words.” The occurrence of such behaviors on BookTok and similar online communities are being lent in the argument that there is a rise of anti-intellectualism in the world, due to social media and technology. Anti-intellectualism is defined by EBSCO as “a skepticism or disdain for intellectual thought and those who embody it, often manifesting as a belief that educated individuals and critical thinking are out of touch with everyday life.”Â
Responses to highly broadcasted media could also be tied to media literacy. A prime example is the response to Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show. Critics of the show said it didn’t make sense, but the performance was actually steeped in metaphors and symbolism. Although lots of the criticism could be tied to the political landscape in the US in February 2025 (shortly after the presidential inauguration), it’s also tied to a lack of desire to learn about the content that was presented to viewers. It’s not new information that Kendrick Lamar is a thoughtful and calculated performer and artist. He has always been a creator who ties in deeper meaning to his work, evident in the fact that he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album DAMN.
This is not to say that viewers aren’t allowed to not like something, especially something popular anymore. It’s to say that media literacy can contribute to a higher level of enjoyment when consuming content and media. If you understand the message, or have the skills to form your own personal interpretation, you are inevitably going to connect with and understand the media more. It makes the consumption you engage in more meaningful in an environment where overconsumption is the norm in every capacity. When viewers have media literacy skills, they can decide if the message of the media —and its effects on them — leaving viewers with autonomy in their consumption.