That was a great post too! I had totally forgotten how I would regularly listen to Collider (especially their Jedi Council podcast) during the lead up to TFA and into TLJ. I did recall Campea’s departure and some falling out stuff, but I hadn’t really kept up with many of these movie review content creators and didn’t realize how many of these media groups have kind of broken down.
I think it highlights the anxiety of being a content creator, where your income relies upon something that is arguably out of your control. And the only way many of them can keep making money is by constantly churning out news, and even worse, ragebait.
I think people forget that anger can be a drug. We can get addicted by how it makes us feel. Regular news already does this, but you definitely see it within more nerdy communities too. Or even the dopamine hits we get from more tame content.
These ragebait content creators don’t care about you. They want to keep you mad so you keep watching content so they keep making money. I’m not saying their opinions aren’t valid, at one point they maybe did care, but the line becomes harder to see when they’re financially motivated to keep talking about it. And I think it can lead us to become hyper fixated on things that really aren’t that important.
Like you said, so what if Batman II is delayed? Maybe there is a valid discussion to have about the dysfunction in Hollywood or whatever, but suddenly that conversation can get blown out of proportion becomes it benefits someone to do so.
I think it is a microcosm of a lot of feelings I have been having lately about internet addiction in general, and the desire to want to spend less time consuming content. And I think it helps when you’re able to look behind the curtain and realize a lot of content creators are trying to take as much time out of our brief lives for a little money.
Anyway, back to real life.
