Postman is everywhere today for a reason. The book is shockingly relevant, as are David Foster Wallace’s essays about television.
I am alarmed by this but also, disliking video myself, baffled by it. The beauty of podcasts is being able to learn/ enjoy while doing things like chores, exercise, or commuting. Who *wants* to sit around watching videos all day? Not me, I’m still audio-only but, I guess, increasingly alone.
This is fascinating and I couldn’t agree more. A million years ago, I read Harlan Ellison’s “The Glass Teat,” venturing the theory that TV doesn’t just suck, it is sucked. This was probably 50 years ago.
TV — or video — strips us of our imagination. Do I watch it? Of course I do. And I can get sucked in to videos on Instagram too. But, like you, I don’t get my news from TV, where it’s become the sort of circus predicted in Paddy Chayefsky’s “Network.”
Thanks for this article. I wish I had a more hopeful outlook on the fate of reading.
I think it depends a lot on how you approach TV. When I was a kid nothing fired my imagination like cartoons. After I watched an episode of Ninja Turtles or Talespin I spent hours thinking about the characters and their adventures and talking about them with friends and family. My brothers and I made up our own stories to expand on what we watched and acted them out. I learned about history by asking my parents to explain episodes of "Garfield and Friends" that referenced historical events.
What strips you of your imagination isn't TV specifically. It's consuming entertainment with your brain turned off. To the extent that TV is uniquely harmful, it is that it makes it easier to turn off your brain than other forms of entertainment. But it's still possible to derive great value from TV if you manage to keep your brain working when you watch it.
Yeah, I ditched TV news 10+ years ago. I don't want 30 second soundbites that don't dig into a topic. Give me an hour long podcast or a good long article that digs in.
If this post was only a video podcast I wouldn't have watched. I know I'm a Luddite, but the written words are more engaging, allowing true contemplation on the author's message. On technical topics, the reader can much more easily check sources. Derek is correct on the trend. However, the healthy growth of the Substack platform, which is still only 3% video, suggests there is is a small counter trend of those who want to think and not just feel.
I love this piece. I also feel like it's missing something glaring: video games. Young men spend more time playing video games than watching TV (though those numbers wouldn't include things like TikTok). TV still dominates for the average American (I think ~20 hours / week vs. ~10 hours / week spent on games). But I believe video games have been rapidly increasing their capture of leisure time, especially with men. I also think it's a fundamentally different medium than TV. Most games require a high degree of participation, which can be good and bad. Good because you're actively engaging parts of your brain. Bad in that this can make them more addictive. Anyway, just food for thought for a future piece. :)
All true, and when you consider the impact of this trend on politics, things get really depressing. For one reason or another, Republicans understand how to do politics in this environment. It's all images and emotionally resonant themes for them, frequently fictional, while Democrats still attempt to win support with policy and analysis broadly based on facts. Until Democrats find a way to make their candidates and messages more entertaining, they will continue to flounder and will potentially lose the opportunity ever to regain power.
yes. I wrote and deleted a bunch of stuff on politics bc it was becoming its own essay. ezra has written/podded wonderfully on the political implications of these ideas
I’d argue it’s not that they understand how to do “politics” better in this environment. It’s that they understand what people want is a savior to burn it all down and then to rebuild. That is why “Trump Can Fix It” and that is why any argument that requires any thought struggles to gain traction.
That’s a fair question! I think my answer would be that there is no attempt to “do politics.” There IS an attempt to do a “tv show” that provides some sort of savior. That’s a fine-line argument to make but I do think there is a distinction.
I hope you stay audio only! I'm like you that podcasts are something I deeply absorb while walking, driving, cooking, etc. I don't want to watch a conversation - I just want to hear it and think about it. Audio sinks in, video flits by.
All great points. It reminded in me that I'm not reading nearly as much as I used to. I'm scrolling instagram and consuming the content I've curated, but just haven't curled up with a good book in awhile. Need to change that.
Reading this, I kept thinking how television, in its newest forms, hasn’t just conquered other media, it’s conquered response. We’ve turned communication into output, until the only thing left to consume is our own reflection.
And in that mirror, we’ve mistaken recognition for relationship. We’re performing connection instead of living it—scrolling, streaming, posting, all to prove we still exist. The tragedy isn’t that no one’s watching. It’s that everyone is, and still, we feel unseen.
What I meant is: I am so put off by current video fashions that I refuse to watch them. Anywhere. I stopped going to theaters years ago because the sound systems were too loud, the films paced at speeds that no one lives.
Tik Tok is a national security risk in addition to just being a waste of time and videos in socmed feeds are just annoying. I refuse to watch them. I will read, but I will not watch videos.
This essay explains why my relationship to television is so different from that of other people. I never saw television as something to sop up my attention with endless diversion. I approached it the same way I did books, a television show was a story you are supposed to engage with and think about the same way you do a book. That's probably why I don't enjoy short-form video and unscripted TV that much. I am not looking for TV that distracts my attention, I am looking for TV that fires my imagination.
Roger Ebert once said that "It's not what a movie's about, it's how it's about it." I don't want to sound smug, but it sounds like I am about TV in a better way than most people are.
Your insightful comment describes me as well. I recently binged The Good Place, and it's just the third TV show I've committed to in my adult years (The West Wing and The Wire being the others). In all three cases, the smart writing sent me down rabbit holes of reading about how the shows were made and the issues that they raised. We're definitely in the minority, I'm afraid.
Currently, vIdeo material moves so fast and is so jerky with impossibly short "scenes" that it is hard to decipher any real meaning; all accompanied by loud booms for sound effects and practically no volume allotted to any words delivered by a human—which are played at 150%+ speed the of usual spoken word.
I’ve always viewed podcasts as a radio product, I’ve never really understood wanting to watch people talk unless a bunch of graphics and maybe charts are being used to explain something.
If you’re watching a podcast on YouTube you can’t lock your phone I don’t understand why anyone would want their phone on constantly even if they only look down at it a couple times throughout the episode.
I fully understand I’m in the minority here just my personal opinion.
What an excellent and thoughtful piece. I have 17 and 13 year old boys so I spend a lot of time thinking about the impact on them of cell phones, social media, etc., not to mention how AI will impact their high school and college experiences and job prospects. Everything is changing so fast or so it seems.
This is great, and I've heard this in other places recently. The bit about devolving from written language is the most worrying bit; if we return to an oral tradition then how can history be understood and accepted? It's only by understanding and accepting history--that which is true and real about humanity--that we can avoid the mistakes of the past. And I think we're seeing the results of ignoring that history in current politics and society across the globe--antisemitism, tribalism, authoritarianism.
I do believe this is where the deepest, most ancient traditions are critical and reveal our humanity. The more we become slaves to our technology and to our governments the less humanity and freedom we have, and it's showing up in our birth rates and our life expectancies and physical and mental health markers. It will require us to reject these false gods and return to celebrating the true God we have rejected so thoroughly. Too many intellectuals are circling around this--or outright rejecting this--when it's so clear to the simple-minded among us who have followed these traditions and see all the signs of civilizational decline. It's truly a story as old as time but our modern sensibilities blind us to the reality of the situation. I just hope enough people wake up before there's too much destruction.
Sometime in the early 1990s I (as a very much traditionally analog oil painter), attended a lunch of Silicon Valley engineers at a popular taqueria in Berkeley, California. These were some of the chief Photoshop developers at the time. I sat at the big round table and listened in silence as they all blew fairy dust about the coming revolutions of the internet and digital imaging up each other’s posteriors. At some point there was a lull in the conversation and I piped up. “You guys aren’t changing the world for the better, you’re just building a much bigger and faster version of the TV set.” I might as well have jumped up on the table and taken a leak into the Guacamole.
So if everyone is watching, maybe the key to getting people DOING is to make a show of it. Instead of bowling alone, bowl in front of cameras streaming to all your followers. Encourage your followers to do the same thing, with AI driven shot selection and commentary. Form virtual leagues, with edited highlight reels in exchange for your time off the couch.
Postman is everywhere today for a reason. The book is shockingly relevant, as are David Foster Wallace’s essays about television.
I am alarmed by this but also, disliking video myself, baffled by it. The beauty of podcasts is being able to learn/ enjoy while doing things like chores, exercise, or commuting. Who *wants* to sit around watching videos all day? Not me, I’m still audio-only but, I guess, increasingly alone.
This is fascinating and I couldn’t agree more. A million years ago, I read Harlan Ellison’s “The Glass Teat,” venturing the theory that TV doesn’t just suck, it is sucked. This was probably 50 years ago.
TV — or video — strips us of our imagination. Do I watch it? Of course I do. And I can get sucked in to videos on Instagram too. But, like you, I don’t get my news from TV, where it’s become the sort of circus predicted in Paddy Chayefsky’s “Network.”
Thanks for this article. I wish I had a more hopeful outlook on the fate of reading.
I think it depends a lot on how you approach TV. When I was a kid nothing fired my imagination like cartoons. After I watched an episode of Ninja Turtles or Talespin I spent hours thinking about the characters and their adventures and talking about them with friends and family. My brothers and I made up our own stories to expand on what we watched and acted them out. I learned about history by asking my parents to explain episodes of "Garfield and Friends" that referenced historical events.
What strips you of your imagination isn't TV specifically. It's consuming entertainment with your brain turned off. To the extent that TV is uniquely harmful, it is that it makes it easier to turn off your brain than other forms of entertainment. But it's still possible to derive great value from TV if you manage to keep your brain working when you watch it.
Yeah, I ditched TV news 10+ years ago. I don't want 30 second soundbites that don't dig into a topic. Give me an hour long podcast or a good long article that digs in.
If this post was only a video podcast I wouldn't have watched. I know I'm a Luddite, but the written words are more engaging, allowing true contemplation on the author's message. On technical topics, the reader can much more easily check sources. Derek is correct on the trend. However, the healthy growth of the Substack platform, which is still only 3% video, suggests there is is a small counter trend of those who want to think and not just feel.
I love this piece. I also feel like it's missing something glaring: video games. Young men spend more time playing video games than watching TV (though those numbers wouldn't include things like TikTok). TV still dominates for the average American (I think ~20 hours / week vs. ~10 hours / week spent on games). But I believe video games have been rapidly increasing their capture of leisure time, especially with men. I also think it's a fundamentally different medium than TV. Most games require a high degree of participation, which can be good and bad. Good because you're actively engaging parts of your brain. Bad in that this can make them more addictive. Anyway, just food for thought for a future piece. :)
All true, and when you consider the impact of this trend on politics, things get really depressing. For one reason or another, Republicans understand how to do politics in this environment. It's all images and emotionally resonant themes for them, frequently fictional, while Democrats still attempt to win support with policy and analysis broadly based on facts. Until Democrats find a way to make their candidates and messages more entertaining, they will continue to flounder and will potentially lose the opportunity ever to regain power.
yes. I wrote and deleted a bunch of stuff on politics bc it was becoming its own essay. ezra has written/podded wonderfully on the political implications of these ideas
I’d argue it’s not that they understand how to do “politics” better in this environment. It’s that they understand what people want is a savior to burn it all down and then to rebuild. That is why “Trump Can Fix It” and that is why any argument that requires any thought struggles to gain traction.
Perhaps it's both?
That’s a fair question! I think my answer would be that there is no attempt to “do politics.” There IS an attempt to do a “tv show” that provides some sort of savior. That’s a fine-line argument to make but I do think there is a distinction.
I hope you stay audio only! I'm like you that podcasts are something I deeply absorb while walking, driving, cooking, etc. I don't want to watch a conversation - I just want to hear it and think about it. Audio sinks in, video flits by.
All great points. It reminded in me that I'm not reading nearly as much as I used to. I'm scrolling instagram and consuming the content I've curated, but just haven't curled up with a good book in awhile. Need to change that.
This can’t help but raise the question: If everything is television, then shouldn’t it be regulated as television?
Reading this, I kept thinking how television, in its newest forms, hasn’t just conquered other media, it’s conquered response. We’ve turned communication into output, until the only thing left to consume is our own reflection.
And in that mirror, we’ve mistaken recognition for relationship. We’re performing connection instead of living it—scrolling, streaming, posting, all to prove we still exist. The tragedy isn’t that no one’s watching. It’s that everyone is, and still, we feel unseen.
I am not sure I understand exactly what you mean.
What I meant is: I am so put off by current video fashions that I refuse to watch them. Anywhere. I stopped going to theaters years ago because the sound systems were too loud, the films paced at speeds that no one lives.
Tik Tok is a national security risk in addition to just being a waste of time and videos in socmed feeds are just annoying. I refuse to watch them. I will read, but I will not watch videos.
This essay explains why my relationship to television is so different from that of other people. I never saw television as something to sop up my attention with endless diversion. I approached it the same way I did books, a television show was a story you are supposed to engage with and think about the same way you do a book. That's probably why I don't enjoy short-form video and unscripted TV that much. I am not looking for TV that distracts my attention, I am looking for TV that fires my imagination.
Roger Ebert once said that "It's not what a movie's about, it's how it's about it." I don't want to sound smug, but it sounds like I am about TV in a better way than most people are.
Your insightful comment describes me as well. I recently binged The Good Place, and it's just the third TV show I've committed to in my adult years (The West Wing and The Wire being the others). In all three cases, the smart writing sent me down rabbit holes of reading about how the shows were made and the issues that they raised. We're definitely in the minority, I'm afraid.
Currently, vIdeo material moves so fast and is so jerky with impossibly short "scenes" that it is hard to decipher any real meaning; all accompanied by loud booms for sound effects and practically no volume allotted to any words delivered by a human—which are played at 150%+ speed the of usual spoken word.
No thanks, I will stick to reading.
Watching vertical videos seriously stresses me out.
I’ve always viewed podcasts as a radio product, I’ve never really understood wanting to watch people talk unless a bunch of graphics and maybe charts are being used to explain something.
If you’re watching a podcast on YouTube you can’t lock your phone I don’t understand why anyone would want their phone on constantly even if they only look down at it a couple times throughout the episode.
I fully understand I’m in the minority here just my personal opinion.
What an excellent and thoughtful piece. I have 17 and 13 year old boys so I spend a lot of time thinking about the impact on them of cell phones, social media, etc., not to mention how AI will impact their high school and college experiences and job prospects. Everything is changing so fast or so it seems.
This is great, and I've heard this in other places recently. The bit about devolving from written language is the most worrying bit; if we return to an oral tradition then how can history be understood and accepted? It's only by understanding and accepting history--that which is true and real about humanity--that we can avoid the mistakes of the past. And I think we're seeing the results of ignoring that history in current politics and society across the globe--antisemitism, tribalism, authoritarianism.
I do believe this is where the deepest, most ancient traditions are critical and reveal our humanity. The more we become slaves to our technology and to our governments the less humanity and freedom we have, and it's showing up in our birth rates and our life expectancies and physical and mental health markers. It will require us to reject these false gods and return to celebrating the true God we have rejected so thoroughly. Too many intellectuals are circling around this--or outright rejecting this--when it's so clear to the simple-minded among us who have followed these traditions and see all the signs of civilizational decline. It's truly a story as old as time but our modern sensibilities blind us to the reality of the situation. I just hope enough people wake up before there's too much destruction.
Sometime in the early 1990s I (as a very much traditionally analog oil painter), attended a lunch of Silicon Valley engineers at a popular taqueria in Berkeley, California. These were some of the chief Photoshop developers at the time. I sat at the big round table and listened in silence as they all blew fairy dust about the coming revolutions of the internet and digital imaging up each other’s posteriors. At some point there was a lull in the conversation and I piped up. “You guys aren’t changing the world for the better, you’re just building a much bigger and faster version of the TV set.” I might as well have jumped up on the table and taken a leak into the Guacamole.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...
So if everyone is watching, maybe the key to getting people DOING is to make a show of it. Instead of bowling alone, bowl in front of cameras streaming to all your followers. Encourage your followers to do the same thing, with AI driven shot selection and commentary. Form virtual leagues, with edited highlight reels in exchange for your time off the couch.