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How did we get here? [Part Two]

  • Writer: Josh
    Josh
  • Sep 18, 2024
  • 5 min read

Updated: Sep 19, 2024

If your read Part One (thanks!) then you may have thought to yourself, that’s all good and well (or maybe not)… but we still haven’t really answered our question. How did we get here? What has caused everything to change?

 

The reasons may be many, but I think two powerful drivers of change are primarily responsible: a technological driver and an existential driver.


1. A Technological Driver


Advances in technology have always driven cultural change - whether that’s the discovery of fire or invention of the Amazon Firestick. In the last century, the rapid development of technologies means that we have been speeding through change at break-neck speed. In fact, things have changed so rapidly that there’s been little chance to reflect on the consequences of new technologies on society [1].

 

It may be a little crude, but we can mark the recent shifts in culture with the invention of different media – modernism is the age of the radio; then film and tv pushes us into postmodernism; and now the internet has brought about the metamodern era.



The internet has brought about three seismic changes that shape how we navigate through the world:


Smart Phones


Research has shown that in 2010, only 23% of young people (12-15 year olds) used mobile phones to access the internet. Fast forward to 2021, and that number leaps to 94% for the same age group [2]. People can now consume media like never before. But we can also capture, create, edit, and share like never before too – meaning that photography and film making is no longer the sole purview of professionals. In fact, viral videos can rack up more views than Hollywood blockbusters, all the while feeling more ‘authentic’ too.


Social Media


Content can be shared more easily than ever before because of the rise of social media. Coupled with the inclusion of a front-facing camera on almost every phone, not only are we now the directors of our own little movies, but also more often than not, the stars of them too. We are incredibly self-reflexive. And when we’re not creating our own content, we can comment instantly on others’.  The feedback loop between established content-creators (i.e. film makers) and consumers (cinemagoers) has tightened dramatically, meaning that sometimes studios will re-shoot or re-edit their films based on feedback they receive from trailers.

Sonic The Hedgehog' from 2020 is a prime example of how a studio might adapt a film based on feedback - largely gathered from social media reactions.

The power to influence broader culture now lays in our fingertips.  Not only that but social media is also inherently reactionary – new trends react to previous trends as people vie to go viral – meaning that oscillation is what keeps the platforms ticking. Thow into the mix echo chambers, algorithms, and the rise of AI, and it all means that truth is often difficult to grasp.


Streaming Services


The way we watch movies has drastically changed due to the internet. Film and TV are such a normal part of everyday life for many, and streaming services have opened up the back catalogues. So, not only are we now often crippled by choice – who hasn’t spent an evening wandering what to watch? – but we’re also less likely to be surprised. The directors of the 2023 Oscar winning film ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ acknowledged this in an interview in which they labelled their work as metamodern:

“…We are film lovers, who've grown up watching so many movies, so much so that we can guess everything that's going to happen… Everyone is so savvy. We're so film-literate that it's really hard to surprise (the audience). And this film is basically trying to acknowledge that weird thing that's happening right now, where we are at peak media saturation, peak story saturation. And we didn't want to ignore the fact that we know this audience doesn't exist in a historic vacuum.” [3]

We are so saturated in stories that it’s impossible to engage with one story without feeling the reverberations of another. Filmmakers know this, so they purposefully draw on the influence of other films – not as parody or pastiche – but to make their own story feel more real, and to carry over emotional resonance from one story to another.


2. An Existential Driver


The second driver is less practical and ‘out-there’ but more personal and ‘in-here’.


Fragmentation


The advent of the internet was supposed to bring about a utopian vision of the future. [4] Instead, all that social media has revealed is that we’re increasingly divided. And whilst we may be more connected than ever before, the majority of people are actually lonelier than ever before too. The secular pluralism posited by postmodernity has only led to increased polarisation, revealing how socially fragmented we are.  


Fear


Whilst postmodernism rejected the naïve optimism of modernism due to ongoing tensions in the world, it has done little to offer any way forward. In fact, global fears around climate change, nuclear war, and pandemics have only seemed to increase. Consequently, metamodernism emphasises a tentative return to meta-narratives as a way of galvanising a collective response to our fears [5].


Fragility


In light of the complexity of life and feeling stretched across digital and physical landscapes, we have become increasingly fragile. The breakdown of communities and the increase in individualism, mean that our sense of self has become ‘buffered’ [6]. We seek to protect ourselves, recognising that the self is susceptible to outside ‘attack’. We are dissatisfied with deconstruction, and long for something constructive.


Why does this matter?


The reason that this all matters is that the world that young people are growing up in today is vastly different to one previous generations grew up in. No doubt, older generations will have faced their own challenges, and some things may be easier for younger folk today, but there’s no doubt that the cultural landscape has changed and is continuing to shift rapidly. Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt notes that a great difference even exists for those born in 1994 (like me!) and those born in 2000, as the former were able to go through puberty before the widespread rise of social media, whilst the latter have had to navigate their teenage years in the midst of it [1]. In a span of just 6 years, people’s experiences of growing up, making friends, making memories and making mistakes have all changed.

 

Youthscape have spearheaded some fantastic research looking at how the lives of teenagers in the UK have changed in the last decade, including how perceptions of Christianity have also changed [7]. I highly recommend taking a look, and I eagerly look forward to the concluding part of their researching coming out later this year.




[1] See Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation (2024)

[4] See Adam Curtis’ documentary, Hypernormalisation.


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