Pet Peeves, Or What Annoyed You Today?

[General Ceel]

Today, and for the past few years, one of my big pet peeves has been the fragmentation of entertainment distribution.

Over the air TV, cable and satellite TV, free streaming, paid streaming, physical media, theatrical, the availability gap - and the worst offender of all, anytime you need to search for and pay for multiple platforms to access the entirety of any one thing.

There is more "content" than ever, but the 'communal experience' has been scarified on the alter of progress.

[Danster]

I know what you mean. I was having a similar thought yesterday but in a slightly different context. When my eldest (now 14) was pre-school, our lives almost revolved around the TV schedule. There were certain kids shows that would keep her engaged for over 20 minutes, so when they came on you'd use that opportunity to do some chores or prepare dinner for later on. When she went to school and my son was around, the TV schedule would remind me when it was nearly time to get ready for school pick up. They would even subconsciously know that lunch was due when a certain show finished.

But in a few short years that completely changed. My youngest, who is now 8, has probably never watched a TV show "live", as in at the time is aired on TV. In fact, our TV isn't even connected to a cable anymore, everything we watch is streamed through the internet. You can watch live TV, but it is through an app like BBC iPlayer or Sky Go. It seems a bit of a shame to me. You lose that water cooler chat in the office, as people will digest newly released content at various times rather than making time to get to the sofa at 9pm when it first airs, knowing that millions of others are doing the same around the country, and knowing that you are going to be having conversations the following day about what you have just watched.

[General Ceel]

In recent years, especially since the start of the pandemic back in 2020, but going back before that when a certain group decided to completely derail American politics - I've been especially annoyed by finding out that people (both in real life, and entertainment personalities) have wildly divergent views from my own. Not agreeing with some people was always a basic fact of life. But these I struggle to tolerate such people because 1) they insist on sharing their opinions ALL THE DAMN TIME, and 2) the level to which their opinions diverge from my has GROWN ENORMOUSLY. It used to seem like most differences were only a matter of a few degrees. Now people actively endorse views I know to be obviously wrong... and even absurd or insane.

I started removing myself from social media years ago, and not even necessarily for the reason above. While there have always been weird, fringe dwellers online, it was never 'mainstream' until much later.

I'm old enough to have not had the internet until high school. When I did it was mostly our message boards, a far cry form what it all turned into about a decade later. So I get it, mankind got along just fine without the internet. But at the same time, because virtually everyone else does everything online, I find myself much more isolate than I was several years ago. But even without the interaction, every where I watch, or read, I get to watch people's sanity unravel.

In the grand scheme of things, all of these new forms of interaction that the internet made possible are still in their infancy. I wonder if it will ever reach maturity and what would that look like? Here in the USA, there is an obsession with freedom that makes it very difficult to police what people say. And the world has gone so bonkers that many of our elected "leaders" are among the worst purveyors of nonsense.

[General Ceel]

Here is another thing that's been bothering me for quite some time, in our social internet age....

We all know about "cults of personality." To qualify as a 'cult of personality' I've always believed that the leader/personality must encourage their followers to follow them. But in these weird times I see 'cults' of "fans" or "followers" coalescing around people who definitely to not encourage it, and most shockingly, spend their time talking about "personal responsibility" and not being controlled by people who would use you. Its a really weird phenomenon. I guess we've always had "fanboys," but usually that phenomenon seemed limited to entertainment, the arts, and sports. Now we've got "fanboys" of everything, and near unlimited access to those speaking their message.

[Danster]

Anyone can be a celebrity now. There used to be an element of gatekeeping, as in there were people who could deny you a platform if you were a bit edgy or not quite right. Now there is no filter and its opened the world's eyes to the fact that we have a pretty sizeable portion of our species that are just not quite right, and now there are platforms that allow poster boys for these often quite sinister groups.

Look at Andrew Tate, no way a total prick like that would get any publicity in the pre-internet age.

[General Ceel]

...compounding things, the fringe message / behavior is encouraged by the exposure it brings. It would be interesting to know how many of the people spouting nonsense even believe the crap they're selling.. as opposed to doing it as a business decision.

I like to joke that I wish I were a "worse" person than I am. Sometimes it seems like being a decent human being is holding me back.

[Danster]

I know exactly what you mean. There is this total prick in England called Tommy Robinson who whips people up into a racist frenzy, basically spouting that Muslims are trying to take over the UK. He's got hundreds of thousands of supporters, people who would and have gone to the streets at his rallying call.

I bet if I cornered him in a quiet pub away from the public glare, he'd reveal himself to be a completely normal sort of guy, he's just found a lucrative lane he can make money from and is basically preying on the wallets of the ignorant. I bet he's not even a racist. Just a total grifter.

I've often thought the same of Trump.

[General Ceel]

Yeah, we've got a lot of that going on here too.

[Danster]

One thing annoyed me today on my run, a dog walker. I love dogs, I'm not one of these dog-haters, but some dog walkers are scum of the earth. I was running along a wide enough pavement to comfortably fit three people side by side, but this dog walker was at one side of the pavement with his dog, attached to a lead, on the other side, basically creating a barrier with the lead that you couldn't pass. Hearing me approach, he looked around and then just carried on walking, not doing a thing to move or to pull his dog out of the way so I had to go into the road to get past him. I gave him a thumbs up and a sarcastic "thanks mate". You can guarantee that he's one of the twats who lets his dog shit in the local park and doesn't pick it up.

[General Ceel]

There are several dog walkers in the local parks who I see pretty much every day. These regulars are polite. Its the occasional park visitors I think who are probably the problem.... especially when it comes to not cleaning up after their animals.