You're not Watching a Movie Tonight

And you're probably not watching a Netflix Series either.

“Seen any good films recently?”

“What shows are you watching at the moment?”

We still throw these questions around, as if they’re still relevant, when the truth is, the culture has moved on.

Tonight, you’re watching that bad reality show as an antidote to your stressful day. Or you’re watching that guy on YouTube you like who lives on a boat. Or maybe you’re just flicking through TikTok until you pass out.

In a previous life, I had a film blog — one where I would write about new releases, often the little indie films nobody had seen. But times have changed, even I’m not watching those movies.

Have I lost my passion?

No, not exactly.

It’s just changed.

I can spend hours watching The Proper People explore abandoned buildings. It somehow feels poignant, nostalgic, and important in ways I can’t even explain.

I’ll happily watch three videos in a row of Peter Santenello talking to people in an unbiased way, getting to know real America, the kind of America that the news media continually ignores.

And I’ll watch or listen to a football podcast for an hour, because I just can’t get enough of that stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, the above creators are not recommendations from me. If you like them, great, but you’ve got your own people. I have a friend who sends me videos about airplanes and I watch them, because I like airplanes. A different friend sends me videos about gaming and I have no interest.

In this era, we’re in our own personal algorithms. For many reasons, like political echo-chambers, that can be a bad thing. But in terms of personal taste and personal enjoyment, we are able to find niches that didn’t exist twenty years ago.

You can watch a badly made ‘true crime’ documentary on Netflix, or you can watch unedited police tapes and body cams of the crime on YouTube. Some might prefer the Netflix version, but many of us are fed up with how they do it and manipulate the material, we just want the real thing.

It’s 2024 and I have a blog called ‘You’ve Got Media’, and it’s taken me a while to figure out what I’m doing here because, I’m not even sure what media is anymore. What am I writing about?

Do I write a top ten list of great movies?

Do I analyse the coverage of Donald Trump’s shooting? Or a deep dive into how Kamala divides Americans?

Maybe I just send you Peter Santenello videos. They’re the thing I’m watching.