this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
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chapotraphouse
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Who watches this shit? Why is our culture like this?
Alienation and atomization leads to people seeking out parasocial relationships.
alienation and atomization sound like dope ass scifi things until you figure out what they are
Alienation is mundane. But Alien Nation was a sci fi movie and show, and I thought it was pretty cool at the time, but I don't remember a damn thing about it
That means you can watch it again and experience it like the first time, or find out it wasn't actually as good as you remember.
I still can't understand why people watch "reality" TV. I can go out in public and hear dumb people say dumb shit without having to watch advertisements
They trashiness is the appeal. People can watch it and assure themselves of how much of a better person they are than the people on the show
I realized this when I found out the main viewer demographics for these shows aren’t the type of people depicted, lower class and uneducated. It’s actually middle class, college educated people who make up the disproportionate bulk of the viewership.
The entertainment is predicated on a classist schadenfreude. The guilty pleasure isn't "I enjoy trashy stuff" it's "I am better than this trash".
Same reason so many people like looking at mugshot sections of the local paper
It's tolerable (depending on the streamer) when it's just 10-30 second Tik Tok highlights, maybe even a 20 min Youtube vlog......but hours long streams? Goddamn what a waste of time
Me forming a parasocial bond with an influencer by running a red while watching a livestream of her running a red.