Like and Subscribe: how TikTok, YouTube, and Podcasts change the way we interact with entertainment and each other
You’ve no doubt heard about the potential TikTok ban in the US. Aside from the political ramifications, this would cause major ripples as TikTok has become one of the main gateways for connecting with culture and media today. It’s a huge part of the new media ecosystem that’s popped up in the last decade. Defining what counts as a new type of media or content is tricky because it’s not just about finding things on the internet. Being able to watch Friends reruns on our laptops doesn’t change the show itself, but only watching Friends clips on TikTok or hearing an influencer talk about the show on YouTube does. The same applies to most traditional media like books, radio, and TV. How we watch, listen to, and read our favorite things are all changing because of these new platforms. More people than ever are also making content. Media used to be controlled by a select few companies who held the means of distribution and production. The internet opened things up, and once the tools caught up with that, anybody could create and share things with the world.
People still listen to music, watch movies, and read books, but all of those face steep competition from new content types like podcasts, YouTube, and TikTok. Streamers are dealing with this now as they struggle to get Gen Z to watch TV over social content. Not only that, but a recent survey indicated that Gen Z is almost always on YouTube or TikTok, showing just how much of a grip these new types of media have over them. Traditional media can’t compete against content that’s ever-present in our lives. It used to be a lot harder to carry something like a book everywhere you went, let alone a TV. Now everywhere you go TikTok is there too. While books and TV are available on our phones, they weren’t designed for constant access or our current attention spans. Watching a few TikToks while waiting in line is easier than trying to hop in and out of a book or a show. Podcasts are even more versatile as we can listen to them while doing other things like cooking or running errands. Despite the positives that have come from easy access to information, this shift in how we take in media has consequences. The constant presence of these new types of media contributes to the screen addiction we all face daily. Having a direct line to media redefines how we interact with it. We stop looking for the specific things we enjoy and instead just keep refreshing to see whatever’s new. TikTok has some amazing videos, but they cease to mean anything when you never stop watching them. The same goes for YouTube and podcasts. They end up just running together until we have no memory of them. This has larger consequences too that go beyond just forgetting what we learned from the podcast we just listened to. When we’re always paying attention to some new piece of information on our phones, it crowds out our own thoughts and decision-making.
With all of this information flying around, the big players can’t gatekeep these platforms like they used to. Individuals have taken advantage of this to force brands, organizations, and networks to take a back seat. Large companies still have power in the form of capital, but content creators now take up the space in people’s lives that those companies once did. Content creators in many ways are the new networks. They’re the topic of conversations where people ask their friends if they’ve caught the latest video or episode. We subscribe to them or find related content, buy merch, and even attend shows in person. This is a huge switch from the old days when only the biggest actors, athletes, and celebrities could become brands. Now anyone can. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s noticed that everyone has a podcast now. NBA role players, TV actors, and other “side” characters have all found success by launching their own media ventures. New media has been a powerful tool in giving them agency over their careers and decentralizing the power to reach people. However, it’s also given some people the ability to offer advice about things they know nothing about. Just because someone is a great artist doesn’t mean we should be going to them for skincare advice or geopolitical strategy. Why they can do this is because these platforms create a sense of relatability. Podcasts are just recorded conversations and most TikToks resemble spur-of-the-moment recordings that a friend might send. Over-production that used to be common created a distance between audiences and creators. By focusing on creating more personal and raw content, individual creators have been able to close that distance. Young people feel closer to their favorite personalities than previous generations. This has brought a sense of belonging to many people, but there’s a dark side. Creators have been able to take advantage of this to sell people things and influence them just like the companies that preceded them. However, these new creators have created a whole new problem for society than rampant consumerism. The parasocial relations they cultivate can take precedence over real relationships.
The lines between online and offline are blurring. All of these changes to the media ecosystem impact how we interact with the world and others. We’re all living in our bubble of carefully curated media, made up of our favorite podcasters, YouTubers, TikTokkers, and influencers. We may have some overlap with others, but we all have our unique combination. So much of our worldview is shaped by what we watch, listen to, and read. If we’re all living in separate realities dictated by who we’re watching then we can’t connect with one another. There’s the classic saying that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. What does that mean when the people we’re “spending” the most time with aren’t actually in our lives? For many of us, the people we spend the most time with are our favorite media figures. Just think about Gen Z’s near-constant use of YouTube and TikTok. Even if our favorite figures are genuinely good people, that still presents issues. It means that one-way relationships are the primary ones influencing us. So we just become extensions of those we watch and listen to, absorbing all of their thoughts and ideas without a chance to express ourselves back. This also affects how we relate with the people who are actually in our lives. Over time our real two-way relationships might start to resemble the one-way ones. Imagine a world where every conversation feels like a podcast monologue, where we just talk at one another instead of with. We all need to re-evaluate how much time we’re spending in our bubbles and simply just consuming other people’s thoughts.
New media types also affect traditional media. Watching a show or listening to an album used to be an engaging, fun, and deep experience. We could sit with a show after watching it and just take it all in. There was no need to talk about a movie with our partner until after we watched it. Debates about an album could take place with our friends weeks after the release date. Now it’s impossible to avoid conversations about anything, and you’ll hear all the details whether you want to or not. Whenever a movie, album, or something else drops, you’ll see podcasts, TikToks, and YouTube videos all discussing it in-depth. We never get a chance to form our own opinions before hearing someone else’s. All of this noise also makes it so we can’t connect with others and have original conversations. We just end up rehashing the same things everyone else is saying. To make matters worse, the discourse has become more important than the art itself. People will spend all this time listening or watching the discourse but won’t take part in the original piece of work themselves. Watching a scene on YouTube or listening to someone talk about a scene on TikTok can’t give you the same experience as watching a movie. That’s not how art is supposed to work. You can’t determine how you feel about something from the comment section.
I don’t want to act holier than thou and talk down to anyone who uses or creates these new types of content. Social media and the people there play a big part in my life just like anyone else my age. There have been days where I’ve spent more time listening to podcasts than I did talking with actual people. I’m also no stranger to trying to create things in the new media environment. What TikTok and YouTube have done for video content, tools like Substack do for writing. It’s amazing that these tools have allowed creators to find audiences, build businesses, and share their art. Whether we’re better off or not with what we’ve created though, is a question I don’t know the answer to. None of us saw TikTok, YouTube, or podcasts coming, and there’s no doubt something new will replace them. I think we need more art, creativity, and connection in the world, and these tools do give us some of that. At the same time, they also cause immense amounts of addiction, isolation, confusion, and distraction. We need tools that let us express ourselves and reach people with our art but we can’t let content take up every minute of our lives, hijack our thoughts, and take over our relationships. There has to be a middle way where individuals can create things without it engulfing the lives of people on the opposite end. What I hope for is that our generation designs platforms where we can build on the creativity of this era but also find a way to bring humanity back into our lives.