On Media, Consumption, and Disengagement

It’s not that deep. Or is it?

Bennett Roadmaster

When artists choose to share their work, there’ll be someone to engage with it. Someone who will read a phrase over and over to ingest every minute detail. Someone who will examine every fleck of paint on a canvas to follow its creator’s movement. Someone who will pick apart a song to hear every instrument hidden behind the vocals, just to piece together the intention behind the creation. There are also people who would rather disengage and make jokes. I recently watched a movie about the corruption of American capitalism and looked it up on Letterboxd. Many of the “reviews” were shallow one-liners and jokes. Discussions of the anti-capitalist messaging were rare and had minimal engagement. This trend of disengaged “analysis” isn’t just on Letterboxd, it’s everywhere.

No one can seriously engage with art anymore. People refer to watching a TV show or reading a book as “consuming media” rather than “engaging with media,” as if art was only made to be consumed without a second thought. The way people engage with art leaves it as a shell of itself, devoid of all intention and meaning. When I do see people earnestly share their analyses, it’s not rewarded like those shallow one-liners are. The complete shutdown of earnest discussions about art online does a major disservice to our brains and our hearts. Art has meaning, art is created with intention, and we can find meaning in anything if we try to. So, I think we should try.

You don’t need to write a full-length essay to seriously engage with a story. You don’t need to have in-depth theories to analyze a sci-fi show. Sometimes, you can have a thought and leave it in your head for yourself. It’s okay to have a “surface-level” thought and say that it reminded you of something else. It’s okay to think that it’s that deep. Sometimes, it is.