With winter closing in on us, I know how easy it can be to fall victim to doomscrolling and bed rotting, especially when it’s starting to get dark out at 4 p.m. Trust me, I love to scroll just as much as the next person but I often notice that I’m not actually consuming any of it and it quickly becomes a mindless activity. To pull myself out of this slump, I’ve been trying to take some time for myself and actually consume the media around me.
Whether it’s a YouTube video, podcast episode, book, article, or music album, media surrounds us in our everyday lives, and I noticed that it really can be a breath of fresh air to enjoy longer media and build your attention span instead of sitting on TikTok or Instagram Reels.
Our conception of love is messed up.
I’ve been trying to get into video essays recently and stumbled across oliSUNvia. Oliva Sun is a very passionate creator who covers topics ranging from politics and philosophy to current media trends. In this video essay, Sun takes a deep dive into our society’s current perception of love. She explains that love should be viewed as active, not passive, and that more people need to focus on loving rather than trying to make themselves more lovable. She also talks about how important it is to treat love as an action and an art rather than a noun and an object.
Media, especially quick media such as TikTok, is quick to make people, especially women, feel insecure in their relationships by saying things like “if he wanted to, he would,” or spreading the idea of a “post-breakup glowup.” In reality, every single relationship is going to be different, with each person having different life experiences. Things that work for one couple may not work for another, and that’s such an important thing to note in today’s society.
I find Sun very well spoken, and she clearly expresses passion for what she’s talking about, which is what I think makes her videos so engaging.
“Finn Wolfhard joins Brittany Broski’s royal court”
For those who don’t know, Brittany Broski is a comedian and internet sensation. She grew her popularity on TikTok in 2019 and, since then, has expanded her platform by doing various bits and podcasts on YouTube. Royal Court is one of my personal favorites. The concept involves Broski bringing on a special guest, either a friend or a well-known celebrity, and asking them questions to determine whether or not they are deemed suitable to join her kingdom and be part of her “royal court”. I was particularly excited to see Finn Wolfhard on as a guest this episode because I am a huge fan of his work as both an actor and a musician. I was also curious to see if he would reveal anything about the new season of Stranger Things that is set to air on Netflix later this month.
Broski’s videos never fail to make me laugh, so if you happen to develop end-of-the-semester blues, I would definitely recommend checking out her channel for Royal Court or her podcast channel, The Broski Report.
Who’s the clown? By Audrey Hobert
I am absolutely obsessed with this album. Who’s the Clown? is Hobert’s first studio album, released on Aug. 15, and since then, I don’t think a day has gone by that I haven’t listened to at least one song from this album. It is so upbeat and fun, and for me, really encapsulates what it’s like to be a teenage girl today. I typically listen to music while I do homework or chores, but with this album, I can’t help but find myself dancing along to it. The entire album has been such a mood booster, with my top three from the album being “Sue me,” “Bowling alley,” and “Thirst Trap.”
“The 13 most embarrassing boyfriends in pop culture“
This article, written by Daniel Rodgers from Vogue, takes a deep dive into his opinion of pop culture boyfriends and which ones you definitely shouldn’t look up to as a partner. I found this article really funny, especially because of Vogue’s recent opinion piece by Chanté Joseph, “Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?”
Everyone consumes media, whether they realize it or not, and it’s easy, especially as a young adult, to base one’s partner choices on characters observed in media. With that said, it is so important that people are also aware of whom not to base their partner choices on. Some that I really want to highlight from the article are Jeremiah Fisher from The Summer I Turned Pretty and Aaron Samuels from Mean Girls.
Vogue highlights Fisher as very selfish, mentioning how, after cheating on his love interest, Isabel (Belly) Conklin, he proceeds to buy her “the world’s smallest engagement ring” to make it up to her. For anyone who watched the show, that was definitely not Fisher’s first or only offense, but a lot of people on social media romanticized him anyway. It’s something I’ve noticed happens often in media, especially when the actor who plays the character is conventionally attractive; it’s like it washes away all the character’s flaws.
Aaron Samuels is described as a hypocrite in the article. Rodgers explains how, though he seems like a total dreamboat in the movies, 20 years later, Rodgers realized the hypocritical undertones expressed by the character, such as dating the head “plastic” and then seriously judging his love interest, Cady Heron, for wanting to be one. This is another example I noticed of people in the media ignoring a character’s major flaws just because they seem dreamy.
All that being said, I’ve found that consuming longer pieces of media daily instead of spending my time scrolling has been a great way to boost my mood. I hope I could inspire you to integrate this practice into your day-to-day life.