Print media is on the verge of death, but that’s not the worst part.
There was a time when trends came with context and background history, HT Brunch was a lot of people’s main source of information on fashion, lifestyle, pop-culture trends that gave them visuals along with text that encouraged people to learn more.
Today, there is shit-load of visual content but without any background context or history to it. Which results in content over-saturation due to sheep-like thinking, blind-following, and half-information.
This cultural shift also gives rise to brands that sell very culture specific products but nowhere inform their audience where the products come from, let alone their history.
Cause let’s be honest, teeth grillz aren't just a piece of accessory, they carry context and history-- specifically black hip/hop culture history that no one wants to mention or talk about.
The Internet boom of the 2000s gave people access to the quantity and quality of visual imagery that they had never seen before. OG social media websites like MySpace, Tumblr, Orkut introduced content sharing in the form of blogging. They ideated towards visuals replacing text posts and blogs. Not long after that, we’re living in a world where content needs to grab attention in the first 3 seconds or you’re cooked (as the kids would say).
Now add AI to the already declining attention spans and that’s an easy recipe for disaster.
There are multiple sources and researches that suggest AI is quite literally making entire generations of people dumb. Using AI to write your email, treating ChatGPT like your therapist, using such platforms to make grocery lists, these all seem harmless enough, but have real lasting impact on cognitive abilities. People are not hungry because they are overfed, there is no drive for knowledge for people to want to learn new things.
This is an entire phase of bastardisation of knowledge and skills that we’re witnessing in real time- whether you’re a digital artist, or getting a doctorate on the politics of smell. You’ll be mocked for your skills and knowledge, because well, what’s the need for being a competent well-informed human when you can just download ChatGPT?
This post, to match the theme, was intentionally made text heavy. To know how much engagement it gets, and how many people are willing to give this a read on their ‘reels app’. If you made it to this page (obviously after reading the previous ones) then congrats! You’ve earned bragging rights & the credibility to make the counterargument that media literacy is indeed not dying (yet, at least). And if you’re someone who read till here- you're already proving all the studies and our post right.