Have you seen media, arts and film that America produces recently? It's garbage.
cute_boi · 2026-10-24 23:41:54 UTC
I can't watch youtube due to all these garbage. Youtube should allow me to blanket ban on publisher who use full AI for full video.
0c3ca83 · 2026-10-24 23:43:09 UTC
They can't, as far as organizational politics goes. Tech is all in on AI.
ion_trapper · 2026-10-25 00:43:17 UTC
Being all in on AI doesnt mean they have to be all in on bottom of the barrel slop videos. Youtube actually does a great job of not serving you slop if it gets to know you well enough. And it does notify you if it detects the video is AI generated. I would hope tech companies are awake to the fact that people’s feeds being deluged by the absolute uncanniest and disturbing visuals you’ve ever seen is feeding into anti-AI sentiment, and they probably shouldn’t be further enabling that.
0c3ca83 · 2026-10-25 04:46:49 UTC
Bets that some VPs are getting bonuses for supporting AI, and the number of AI videos is a metric that's going into their promo packet?
ssl-3 · 2026-10-25 06:09:11 UTC
I'd rather bet that YouTube wants the greatest number of people watching as many videos with as many ads as possible, and that they don't give a fuck how the content was produced as long as it acquires and retains eyeballs.
loloquwowndueo · 2026-10-24 23:46:27 UTC
I just stopped using YouTube for entertainment years ago. Try it!
(I still jump in for the occasional video tutorial etc but it’s always targeted - go for one thing, swoop in, close it when I’m done.
bubblemoth · 2026-10-25 00:16:37 UTC
Where do you find entertainment now?
dylan604 · 2026-10-25 00:27:08 UTC
I just listen to one of many of the voices in my head and see what they have to suggest. Things get interesting
Dove · 2026-10-25 00:41:39 UTC
I'm not who you're replying to, but I tuned out big movies and TV long ago, and just recently, YouTube became a hostile enough environment for me to start limiting it. When I do go there, it's to watch specific channels I already know. Clickbait titles and slop suggestions just aren't worth the psycholigical hassle when I want to relax.
I had been replacing it with podcasts, but they are so ad-infested now that it's been pushing me more and more to audiobooks. I also watch a fair bit of content on smaller special interest platforms, like CrunchyRoll for Anime or Pepperbox for guns. They're easy to sub and unsub depending on what I'm interested in. I often rent old movies. And more and more... I read.
I had used Prime's videos for a while when they had something I liked, but the ads have gotten so bad that I now go out of my way not to emotionally invest in anything they produce. The experience has left me skeptical of other platform exclusive shows and I generally just go do something else with my time. I used to be a big fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek, but at some point they both started producing Platform Content and in response, I haven't watched anything from either for about a decade now.
loloquwowndueo · 2026-10-25 01:20:15 UTC
You’re being sarcastic, right?
malnourish · 2026-10-25 02:32:54 UTC
I read
WarmWash · 2026-10-25 00:52:41 UTC
Ironically I find that YouTube has the absolute best content. It's the only one with authentic people making quality stuff for exactly your niche.
That doesn't mean there isn't trash, and I suppose if tv series are your jam it's likely sub-par, but for me it's unmatched by light years.
Gigachad · 2026-10-25 00:59:31 UTC
It's got good content but also a massive amount of slop. You don't see much straight up AI generated video, but it's incredibly common to see youtubers just sitting there reading a ChatGPT script.
rockskon · 2026-10-25 01:03:12 UTC
"In this video I'm going to..."
"Let me tell you why!"
"Is not X, it's Y!"
and so on. It's so tiresome. I can't stand AI scripts. It makes the entire video feel like a waste of my time.
vconnor · 2026-10-25 07:04:33 UTC
99% of everything is shit. There is a lot of good content on Youtube, which means the vast majority of videos on the platform is dreadful slop.
sokoloff · 2026-10-25 11:39:54 UTC
I see tons of straight-up fully AI videos being offered, whether it’s NotebookLM discussions of some topic, some nonsense reading of “accepted answers” to a tech query, or the maddening “here’s three ways old money acts”, I assume based on being interested in tech topics and retirement saving topics.
carlosjobim · 2026-10-25 11:56:51 UTC
Use the dislike button. Every supermarket has a massive amount of slop in the front and high quality stuff in the back.
ninkendo · 2026-10-25 13:34:24 UTC
If you think the AI problem on YouTube is getting bad you should see what kinda stuff they put on there for kids.
Every now and then I’d let my 3 and 5 year old pick what they want to watch (on my account, but I’m supervising them) and they’d find these Mario videos that are basically someone prompting “make as many YouTube channels with Mario videos as you can” and walked away from the computer. Each video is a bunch of 3 second clips smooshed together with no continuity, backgrounds constantly changing, suddenly there’s 100 Luigi’s in the background for no reason, etc. And my kids couldn’t get enough of it.
Suddenly our recommendations were all Mario videos, and banning the channels does nothing because they’re coming from hundreds of different channels.
I just locked the profile, deleted all its history, and never looked back. No more YouTube for them.
wellthisisgreat · 2026-10-24 23:43:20 UTC
There is some resurgence in quality here and there but then there is Avengers, MCU, Star Wars and idk how you can balance that with any amount of quality indie products
Arubis · 2026-10-24 23:55:23 UTC
This might be (unintentionally?) part of the reason for the original subject: how many jobs does the Avengers IP pipeline support? How about for a single artifact output by it--one TV show, for example?
And how many people work on a well-loved indie artifact of about the same market position?
Gonna guess the latter supports way fewer jobs. (This isn't meant as a judgment in taste or moralizing--my own entertainment tastes run indie towards pretentious, so economically I'm part of the problem.)
asdff · 2026-10-25 03:37:55 UTC
Another issue is that the avengers is just sucking up money that would have been invested in different IP than Stan Lee's comic books. All that money would have been spent either way, just a question of if we wanted to see one of the most sophisticated rendering farms ever constructed grind on Thanos's chin wrinkles or maybe some other projects.
Ekaros · 2026-10-25 10:32:48 UTC
Sometimes I wonder about efficiency part. How efficient these big budget titles are? How much many man hours spend of them are actually waste? It does get to back to whole broken window thing. Demand was generate but was it usefully spend? Indie is most likely doing whole thing in much more efficient way. With slightly different product but still often something acceptable.
Is more jobs better than less jobs? Or does this apply to only certain things?
drivers99 · 2026-10-25 00:42:14 UTC
The last Avengers movie was 7.5 years ago. The last Star Wars episode was 7 years ago. (The Mandalorian one is the only standalone one since then.) Avengers are included in the MCU btw. There have only been about 1 to 3 MCU movies per year for the last few years. (2022: 3; 2023: 3; 2024: 1; 2025: 3; 2026: 2). There are tons of other, really good movies to watch. Not just indies either: Did you happen to see Project Hail Mary this year? The Odyssey? I missed Spider-man: Brand New Day (the MCU movie that came out this year so far), but it has 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, so I don't think that drags down the average in terms of quality either.
Carrok · 2026-10-25 01:03:25 UTC
“Only” 1 to 3 MCU movies a year? This is an absurd amount of junk.
add-sub-mul-div · 2026-10-24 23:59:18 UTC
Vague takes like this scream Facebook boomer. There's lots of great media and lots of bad media. It's the nature of trying to monetize creativity.
talon8635 · 2026-10-25 01:06:58 UTC
What does this mean “to monetize creativity”?
Are you suggesting creatives just give their work away for free?
TacticalCoder · 2026-10-25 01:16:54 UTC
Apparently you need a 10 K+ karma account to say the following (which another account, a new one and not mine btw, posted). Some I'm just reusing the other dude's words:
In contrast, thought-terminating clichés like "facebook boomer" show critical thinking on your part.
I fully agree with that: calling someone a "facebook boomer" is just plain pathetic.
(btw the boomers are my parents' generation: don't go thinking I take it personally. I'm a GenX'er and GenX'er are badass, which is why I don't give a flying fuck saying what I think).
Something something about the pot and calling some kettle black etc.
scarecrowbob · 2026-10-25 20:56:23 UTC
Ok boomer.
sickcodebruh · 2026-10-25 01:19:29 UTC
Media, arts, film, and America: things that are not monolithic and cannot be evaluated with blanket statements.
A side-effect of the democratization of content creation and the explosion of ways to consume content is that there’s more low-quality things to consume. Low-quality content will always be produced in greater abundance than high-quality so there’s more garbage to dig through, but there are still gems out there.
Personally, after years of infrequent movie attendance, this is the first month that I can remember in my adult life that my wife and I saw two movies in the theater and given the opportunity there’s a third we’d still like to see!
biophysboy · 2026-10-25 02:21:54 UTC
Let’s go back to the good ol days when half of movies were about cowboys.
asdff · 2026-10-25 03:35:47 UTC
Go ahead and watch one of those cowboy movies like Once Upon a Time in the West. We've definitely lost some skills as a species over time.
WhompingWindows · 2026-10-25 13:11:10 UTC
Check out Dropout.TV. Best comedy network in years, absolutely brilliant content.
OgsyedIE · 2026-10-24 23:53:23 UTC
"You're going to begin to see demand destruction based on the pricing environment." - Bob Jordan, CEO of Southwest Airlines, April 23rd
combobyte · 2026-10-25 00:30:17 UTC
"We've finally gone too far on pricing" is a wild thing to hear a CEO say out loud in 2026.
redwood · 2026-10-25 00:49:30 UTC
It's not that the prices are up to milk the consumer. Look at Southwest's thin profit margin. Costs are up
OgsyedIE · 2026-10-25 01:00:04 UTC
Costs aren't just up on the shocks of this year. The daily production of all diesel and jet fuel per capita has been declining month on month since 2008.
The per capita part is very important to explaining the figure, don't ignore it, but if you break oil (and related products like kerogen, bitumen and NGL) into light, medium and heavy we hit peak medium oil in 2008.
redwood · 2026-10-25 04:39:02 UTC
I'm not following
big_hacker · 2026-10-25 09:57:55 UTC
According to the commenter, price up while production per capita down makes the product unaffordable or less interesting to a lot of people. It is implied by the commenter that fuel producers should produce more and aim for lower prices.
seb1204 · 2026-10-25 13:18:15 UTC
I think parent is trying to say that while it may seem that prices are high underneath the big wave of secondary effects can be seen coming already.
80fj0348i · 2026-10-25 17:36:36 UTC
> The daily production of all diesel and jet fuel per capita has been declining month on month since 2008.
Isn't that explained by improvements in efficiency? i.e. it takes significantly less fuel to move the same mass than it did in 2008?
SoftTalker · 2026-10-25 01:00:19 UTC
Jet fuel has more than doubled in cost just this year. That wasn't in anyone's plans.
gib444 · 2026-10-25 09:55:46 UTC
It was definitely someone's plan though
onlypassingthru · 2026-10-25 18:04:03 UTC
A Big Beautiful Plan, if you will
Seattle3503 · 2026-10-25 03:17:18 UTC
The full quote implies more uncertainty
> So based on that, we believe what is most fair is to put current trends in because you cannot predict at what point consumers and demand is going to be -- you're going to begin to see demand destruction based on the pricing environment.
Many people spend hours browsing Tik Tok rather than watching film or television.
Even long form YouTube videos are highly popular. Many folks spend time watching those rather than movies or tv. I believe Tom Hanks was speaking about this many years ago.
That being said….
I remember growing up and my teachers would always emphasize the importance of reading. I’m sure it would be a great thing for humanity if everyone spent their free time reading books rather than on film or television. In such a scenario would people complain about job loss then? This could be a fruitful idea for a science fiction short story come to think of it.
dodger-dog · 2026-10-25 00:21:34 UTC
This is my thinking. TikTok is very entertaining. I can’t do hours, but 30 minutes to an hour is great. Compare it to an unswipable hours long sporting event, 30 minutes looking for the right movie you quit 30 minutes in or have to pause till another day because something comes up, or tv shows with unresolved endings that leave you feeling like you are in a toxic relationship-hating the commitment but afraid of the sense of loss.
forgotusername6 · 2026-10-25 00:29:24 UTC
Habitual use of shorter and shorter form content trains you to expect gratification faster and faster. There is most certainly a better reward for delaying gratification. A really good movie can leave you on a complete high or completely devastated. I'm pretty certain tiktok cannot. It's cheap quick entertainment but if you get used to that fast shallow enjoyment you can't hold on long enough for the good stuff.
dodger-dog · 2026-10-25 17:52:50 UTC
I understand. The same arguments have been with us for a long time. See Conrad Gessner's arguments against the printing press.
Since rolling back to at least the pre-radio days is unlikely, we might focus on educating consumers in a way that empowers them rather taking a top-down approach to control what people are allowed to do because we know what is best for everyone.
SoftTalker · 2026-10-25 01:13:13 UTC
Something I realized recently was that when I watch videos in any form (feature film, documentary, dramatic or comedy series, or short) I have this nagging feeling I'm wasting time. I think it's because watching is such a passive activity.
When I read, I don't get that feeling. Even here on HN where it is mostly wasting time.
I think this is why so much media has viewer comments. It's something to engage with and lose awareness of the passing time.
jalev · 2026-10-24 23:56:55 UTC
Some of these graphs don't support the hypothesis. The movie one for example shows that employment is just slightly below what it was just after the financial crisis of 2008, and shows record job loss after the covid bump which we all know resulted in massive hiring sprees in a lot of sectors followed by massive layoffs. Is the movie and movie production sector really experiencing an apocalyptic downturn where the line will reach zero, or just returning to its median?
Apparently the amount of movies actually being produced has barely recovered to post 2008 levels.
Yeah but the total hours of content produced are way up. Most video content that needs to be produced and is consumed nowadays isn't movies.
redwood · 2026-10-25 00:54:53 UTC
That's part of the point. If anyone can create cheap garbage, flood it on socials, and get people to click see what goes viral the old attention economy is just totally disrupted
alephnerd · 2026-10-25 00:42:57 UTC
> record job loss after the covid bump which we all know resulted in massive hiring sprees in a lot of sectors followed by massive layoffs. Is the movie and movie production sector really experiencing an apocalyptic downturn where the line will reach zero, or just returning to its median?
The 2023 Hollywood Strike strike, the COVID lockdowns shutting down theaters, and the aggressive film production (UK, Poland, Ireland, Norway, Italy, Spain, Colombia) and VFX (Ireland, India, Colombia) subsidizes right as American states like California, Georgia, NY, and others began cutting them meant much of the American film and television industry got obliterated earlier this decade.
The reality is revenue is roughly consistent, but production costs one you remove subsidies (like what most of the US and Canada did) become exhorbitant in low margin industries like entertainment.
It's now cheaper to produce an "American" movie or TV show in Ireland, using British actors affecting an American accent (thank Hugh Laurie, Idris Elba, and Dominic West for that), with post and VFX done in India than it is in the US.
This is something that has been reported on in the space for a decade now, but not much can be done.
This article is also another example of why HNers should stick to their own lane, as most lack context or visibility into other industries.
talon8635 · 2026-10-25 01:10:13 UTC
Why should we expect the economy of 2026 (not 2020) be comparable to 2008? Am I missing something? Economy was awful i 2008 and we are currently in boom time markets, so boomy for so long that people have been saying it must be a bubble for years now.
wewewedxfgdf · 2026-10-24 23:59:11 UTC
Interest rates and inflation have vastly more impact than AI.
mkotlikov · 2026-10-25 00:51:07 UTC
This 100%. All the layoffs started before AI. High interest rates means businesses can't afford to take risks. Our entire economy is based on easy money from cheap debt. The tech layoffs are about being able to pay for AI whether that's paying for data centers or tokens.
I expect AI use to cause an increase in output, not a decrease in employment. At least right now. In TV and Film it would translate to more content that was too expensive to film before. If your business is making movies and then suddenly the market is flooded with fast and cheap movies, then you're going to make more fast and cheap movies too!
jeffbee · 2026-10-25 01:07:58 UTC
That doesn't explain anything in this article. All the time series go back to 1990 when interest rates were significantly higher any way you look at them.
bluescrn · 2026-10-25 18:10:27 UTC
AI inflated the price of everything with RAM in it.
999900000999 · 2026-10-25 00:08:45 UTC
No one has any money and entertainment is the first thing you cut.
Every streaming service feels more and more user hostile. If I want to watch South Park it’s a 15$ a month subscription just for that .
Paramount Plus has nothing else.
I want to watch Lanterns, another 30$ a month.
Maybe King of The Hill , 20$ a month. The Reboot has this weird lazy animation style.
qurren · 2026-10-25 00:15:15 UTC
Also, nobody has any time for entertainment. Office workers all working 80 hours a week fearing stack ranking, PIPs, layoffs, needing to scramble to get a new H1B job or risk getting kicked out of the country and having to uproot kids. Service workers are working 120 hours a week across 3 jobs. Single people are working 100+ hours a week studying and interviewing and not getting jobs.
_heimdall · 2026-10-25 00:29:55 UTC
Interesting, I have seen people be stretched thin and more stretched but I haven't seen people working 80-120 hour weeks. Different circles maybe?
I do feel for anyone trying to find a new H1B sponsor. I've lived and worker as a foreigner before, its stressful for sure. It is also a tough spot for a country to be in, if your domestic labor is struggling to find or keep jobs itsnhard to justify continuing protections for foreign labor.
cjpearson · 2026-10-25 00:30:34 UTC
While this may be true for some people, overall this is not backed up by the data.
The average amount of time spent doing "Relaxing and leisure" activities (mostly TV) has increased 6% in the last twenty years. There was a small decrease after the post-COVID peak, but working time has also decreased in this time frame.
How dare you bring facts and data to a fight based on vibes!
tokioyoyo · 2026-10-25 02:24:57 UTC
Not true. If you look at any “cheap entertainment” dashboard, you’ll see usage has been going up.
My hypothesis is, YT, Reels and TT are eating everyone’s lunch, as people spend more time on those. And for people who don’t watch much, there’s Spotify. Basically attention span degradation across all age groups.
hobo123 · 2026-10-25 09:03:55 UTC
Outside of work I think many people only have energy for TV and Insta/tok. Which is a huge problem.
_heimdall · 2026-10-25 00:15:33 UTC
I believe its called South America now.
ajkjk · 2026-10-25 00:28:49 UTC
and the content strangely sucks most of the time. like no one can write, edit, direct, or act anymore. Not always but strangely often.
LPisGood · 2026-10-25 00:40:02 UTC
I feel like this comment contrasted with the incredible movie releases this since ~May is just not holding water.
tayo42 · 2026-10-25 00:48:43 UTC
It felt like there were years where good movies like stopped being made. Or just contrasted with years filled with good movies.
What came out this year that you think you'll watch again in 10 years?
Timon3 · 2026-10-25 04:03:31 UTC
Project Hail Mary! I loved it, will definitely be a yearly rewatch for me.
atentaten · 2026-10-25 00:51:14 UTC
Which of these movies would you say are good? I haven't been following up with releases but would like to watch something worthwhile.
DangitBobby · 2026-10-25 02:02:36 UTC
You Can See Everything is definitely worth watching.
Marsymars · 2026-10-25 02:53:03 UTC
Depends on what you like. I quite enjoyed Project Hail Mary, The Invite, and Tony. I'm excited for Wildwood and Ray Gunn.
kaseijin · 2026-10-25 02:12:42 UTC
Hollywood movie industry is starting to come around and fix the problem which more "bad writing" than anything but it takes awhile and they've still got a lot of stinkers still in the pipe. But that's always true.
The industry goes through slumps and renaissance periods as the creative juices wax and wain. Game industry is falling into the same trends.
Even during creative slumps there's always someone out there not following the trends making something good
MiroslavPokorny · 2026-10-25 00:49:09 UTC
It feels like all media, from tv shows to movies are all following a certain formula, with a goal to drive a certain social perspective about people and society.
ajkjk · 2026-10-25 11:55:29 UTC
I don't think it's a goal. I think it's that the corporate machine which makes media can't really do otherwise for structural reasons.
MiroslavPokorny · 2026-10-26 00:54:45 UTC
It may not be the primary goal but it certain is on the agenda for the writing guidelines of the scripts that are produced.
ajkjk · 2026-10-26 17:28:25 UTC
That I believe. Just, I think the goal is normative, like "don't get in trouble / upset anyone", rather than moral or artistic. So it's the type of goal that shows up in the vacuum of actual goals. It is the type of goal that committees and corporate structures are gravitationally drawn to. Which is what I kinda mean by the problem being structural: the way capitalism makes art naturally regresses to a boring and unimpressive mean with bland and frustrating goals.
999900000999 · 2026-10-25 00:55:08 UTC
Every thing is safe.
If certain ultra conservative countries don’t like LGBT representation they don’t get to be in your major movie.
At this point I don’t know the difference between Chat GPT writing the next marvel movie or Disney hiring someone. Either way the story needs to be crystal clear. You never watch something that makes you think.
asdff · 2026-10-25 03:52:50 UTC
They write now for an audience with no media literacy skills beyond good guy good, bad guy bad, and the HR department box check that you have every creed and color represented in the cast.
hobo123 · 2026-10-25 08:28:15 UTC
As if there was somehow a lack of LGBT representation on TV these days. At least on German TV is seems like every show, quiz show, whatever has these "quota" characters.
I don't mind too much, I just miss overall quality and don't care who tf is "represented" or not.
krior · 2026-10-25 09:04:10 UTC
Don't bring german TV into a discussion about media quality, its embarassing.
hobo123 · 2026-10-25 09:06:23 UTC
Why, do you think it's that much worse than American TV, or that much better? In absolute terms it is embarrassing, but I would say so is US TV.
herbst · 2026-10-25 09:42:01 UTC
You haven't tried Austrian TV then.
But honestly I think most localized TV experiences are awkward. Switzerland barely is tho, that's clean and boring in a way but rarely awkward.
ajkjk · 2026-10-25 15:28:54 UTC
This isn't the problem I'm talking about at all. I think there's just basic skill issues everywhere. Maybe there are also issues with this, but it's a separate thing.
SoftTalker · 2026-10-25 00:57:48 UTC
Well it's shot on a phone, lit with bad LED lighting and edited on a laptop. It all shows in the final product.
seb1204 · 2026-10-25 08:19:27 UTC
If it sucks the conclusion is to turn it off for me. Stopped most subscriptions.
senordevnyc · 2026-10-25 00:45:39 UTC
Without even looking at the data, I bet both of your hypotheses here are wrong.
I bet the median American has more real disposable income than four years ago.
I bet the median American spends more in real terms on entertainment (and streaming specifically) than four years ago.
Almost without fail, the data in almost any area of modern life seems to be way less negative than people’s vibes about it are.
WarmWash · 2026-10-25 00:50:45 UTC
I think we are still in a hangover from the financial cocaine the governments were handing out during the pandemic (and even long after it was a problem).
Comments
(I still jump in for the occasional video tutorial etc but it’s always targeted - go for one thing, swoop in, close it when I’m done.
I had been replacing it with podcasts, but they are so ad-infested now that it's been pushing me more and more to audiobooks. I also watch a fair bit of content on smaller special interest platforms, like CrunchyRoll for Anime or Pepperbox for guns. They're easy to sub and unsub depending on what I'm interested in. I often rent old movies. And more and more... I read.
I had used Prime's videos for a while when they had something I liked, but the ads have gotten so bad that I now go out of my way not to emotionally invest in anything they produce. The experience has left me skeptical of other platform exclusive shows and I generally just go do something else with my time. I used to be a big fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek, but at some point they both started producing Platform Content and in response, I haven't watched anything from either for about a decade now.
That doesn't mean there isn't trash, and I suppose if tv series are your jam it's likely sub-par, but for me it's unmatched by light years.
"Let me tell you why!"
"Is not X, it's Y!"
and so on. It's so tiresome. I can't stand AI scripts. It makes the entire video feel like a waste of my time.
Every now and then I’d let my 3 and 5 year old pick what they want to watch (on my account, but I’m supervising them) and they’d find these Mario videos that are basically someone prompting “make as many YouTube channels with Mario videos as you can” and walked away from the computer. Each video is a bunch of 3 second clips smooshed together with no continuity, backgrounds constantly changing, suddenly there’s 100 Luigi’s in the background for no reason, etc. And my kids couldn’t get enough of it.
Suddenly our recommendations were all Mario videos, and banning the channels does nothing because they’re coming from hundreds of different channels.
I just locked the profile, deleted all its history, and never looked back. No more YouTube for them.
And how many people work on a well-loved indie artifact of about the same market position?
Gonna guess the latter supports way fewer jobs. (This isn't meant as a judgment in taste or moralizing--my own entertainment tastes run indie towards pretentious, so economically I'm part of the problem.)
Is more jobs better than less jobs? Or does this apply to only certain things?
Are you suggesting creatives just give their work away for free?
In contrast, thought-terminating clichés like "facebook boomer" show critical thinking on your part.
I fully agree with that: calling someone a "facebook boomer" is just plain pathetic.
(btw the boomers are my parents' generation: don't go thinking I take it personally. I'm a GenX'er and GenX'er are badass, which is why I don't give a flying fuck saying what I think).
Something something about the pot and calling some kettle black etc.
A side-effect of the democratization of content creation and the explosion of ways to consume content is that there’s more low-quality things to consume. Low-quality content will always be produced in greater abundance than high-quality so there’s more garbage to dig through, but there are still gems out there.
Personally, after years of infrequent movie attendance, this is the first month that I can remember in my adult life that my wife and I saw two movies in the theater and given the opportunity there’s a third we’d still like to see!
The per capita part is very important to explaining the figure, don't ignore it, but if you break oil (and related products like kerogen, bitumen and NGL) into light, medium and heavy we hit peak medium oil in 2008.
Isn't that explained by improvements in efficiency? i.e. it takes significantly less fuel to move the same mass than it did in 2008?
> So based on that, we believe what is most fair is to put current trends in because you cannot predict at what point consumers and demand is going to be -- you're going to begin to see demand destruction based on the pricing environment.
https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/04/23/so...
Many people spend hours browsing Tik Tok rather than watching film or television.
Even long form YouTube videos are highly popular. Many folks spend time watching those rather than movies or tv. I believe Tom Hanks was speaking about this many years ago.
That being said….
I remember growing up and my teachers would always emphasize the importance of reading. I’m sure it would be a great thing for humanity if everyone spent their free time reading books rather than on film or television. In such a scenario would people complain about job loss then? This could be a fruitful idea for a science fiction short story come to think of it.
Since rolling back to at least the pre-radio days is unlikely, we might focus on educating consumers in a way that empowers them rather taking a top-down approach to control what people are allowed to do because we know what is best for everyone.
When I read, I don't get that feeling. Even here on HN where it is mostly wasting time.
I think this is why so much media has viewer comments. It's something to engage with and lose awareness of the passing time.
Apparently the amount of movies actually being produced has barely recovered to post 2008 levels.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/187122/movie-releases-in...
The 2023 Hollywood Strike strike, the COVID lockdowns shutting down theaters, and the aggressive film production (UK, Poland, Ireland, Norway, Italy, Spain, Colombia) and VFX (Ireland, India, Colombia) subsidizes right as American states like California, Georgia, NY, and others began cutting them meant much of the American film and television industry got obliterated earlier this decade.
The reality is revenue is roughly consistent, but production costs one you remove subsidies (like what most of the US and Canada did) become exhorbitant in low margin industries like entertainment.
It's now cheaper to produce an "American" movie or TV show in Ireland, using British actors affecting an American accent (thank Hugh Laurie, Idris Elba, and Dominic West for that), with post and VFX done in India than it is in the US.
This is something that has been reported on in the space for a decade now, but not much can be done.
This article is also another example of why HNers should stick to their own lane, as most lack context or visibility into other industries.
I expect AI use to cause an increase in output, not a decrease in employment. At least right now. In TV and Film it would translate to more content that was too expensive to film before. If your business is making movies and then suddenly the market is flooded with fast and cheap movies, then you're going to make more fast and cheap movies too!
Every streaming service feels more and more user hostile. If I want to watch South Park it’s a 15$ a month subscription just for that .
Paramount Plus has nothing else.
I want to watch Lanterns, another 30$ a month.
Maybe King of The Hill , 20$ a month. The Reboot has this weird lazy animation style.
I do feel for anyone trying to find a new H1B sponsor. I've lived and worker as a foreigner before, its stressful for sure. It is also a tough spot for a country to be in, if your domestic labor is struggling to find or keep jobs itsnhard to justify continuing protections for foreign labor.
The average amount of time spent doing "Relaxing and leisure" activities (mostly TV) has increased 6% in the last twenty years. There was a small decrease after the post-COVID peak, but working time has also decreased in this time frame.
https://www.bls.gov/tus/tables.htm
My hypothesis is, YT, Reels and TT are eating everyone’s lunch, as people spend more time on those. And for people who don’t watch much, there’s Spotify. Basically attention span degradation across all age groups.
What came out this year that you think you'll watch again in 10 years?
The industry goes through slumps and renaissance periods as the creative juices wax and wain. Game industry is falling into the same trends.
Even during creative slumps there's always someone out there not following the trends making something good
If certain ultra conservative countries don’t like LGBT representation they don’t get to be in your major movie.
At this point I don’t know the difference between Chat GPT writing the next marvel movie or Disney hiring someone. Either way the story needs to be crystal clear. You never watch something that makes you think.
I don't mind too much, I just miss overall quality and don't care who tf is "represented" or not.
But honestly I think most localized TV experiences are awkward. Switzerland barely is tho, that's clean and boring in a way but rarely awkward.
I bet the median American has more real disposable income than four years ago.
I bet the median American spends more in real terms on entertainment (and streaming specifically) than four years ago.
Almost without fail, the data in almost any area of modern life seems to be way less negative than people’s vibes about it are.