Warning: Spoiler Alert! This post may contain spoilers for different movies, TV shows, and books. Although, a lot of people probably already know most of any spoilers I may mention. Like, did you know Snape killed Dumbledore? Well, if you didn't before, now you do. Didn't read that part of the book yet? Really? It's been out since 2005, you should have read it by now...or seen the movie...or at least know that Dumbledore dies by the end. Look, all I'm saying is that spoiler alerts are silly. Just because you may know something happens doesn't mean you know how it's going to happen, so it doesn't really spoil much. So if you feel like part of a story has been spoiled for you, please don't be a sour puss about it. You were going to find out at some point. Just go look at the whole story if you are into it that much. If you're not into it, then it's nothing to get bent out of shape about. Wait, what am I supposed to be writing about? Oh yeah...
Obsession
Obsession
While stories have been a part of humanity since our
earliest days, it seems that within the past decade or so, our society
(especially in the United States) has obsessed over stories in ways like never before. Take the Harry Potter series. What started out as a mildly popular set
of books in the late 90’s has turned into a global phenomenon. Some people read
the seven book series on an annual basis. Some people only watch the movie
versions which has led to the popularization of Harry Potter movie
marathons on the ABC Family channel every month. Some people assemble Quidditch
teams on their college campus, even though there is no way humanly possible for
the sport to be played exactly as it is in the books.
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| Though you gotta admire the dedication of people who enjoy running across a field while holding onto a broom. |
The point is that people have become super obsessed with the story
of Harry Potter and his adventures in and out of Hogwarts. There has been
similar obsession with the Doctor Who TV series, which has become a recent
interest to me. Doctor Who has been on TV since 1963, traveling across time and
space with various companions and side characters. For 50 years, people have
watched The Doctor battle alien races with his sonic screwdriver and travel in
his Tardis which is a time travel device that looks like a phone booth (for those of you who haven't seen the show, I'm seriously not making any of this up). Since the reboot of the series in 2005, the show has reached a new
level of popularity, even though the effects are cheesy and there have been
over 12 men to play The Doctor now.
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| It's kinda like a nerdy version of James Bond. If James Bond peacefully battled aliens and robots instead of blowing up human terrorists. |
This level of obsession is so intense that it is hard to
ignore, especially in the online world. This kind of fandom is also seen from
people who are dedicated to the stories of Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star
Wars, and even comic books. People spend a lot of time and money going to
conventions in costumes because of how much they have dedicated their lives to
the dozens or hundreds of comic books that tell the tales of Spider-Man, the
X-Men, the Justice League, etc.
Most recently, this kind of obsession is found
in Netflix. Many people now dedicate entire days, weekends, or weeks to
watching one popular TV show like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, and
Dexter. After binge-watching several episodes in one sitting, people who
glorify the show also complain about “What am I going to watch now?” or “Why do
I have to wait until the next season?” when even just ten or twenty years ago,
people asked these kinds of questions but they knew they would have to
patiently wait for the episode next week instead of the next second.
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| Although now, the whole family can find out How He Met The Mother in nine days instead of nine years. Totally worth it! |
My Own Experience
As a little kid, I too had obsessions. I was hooked on the cartoons I watched in my childhood, especially on Saturday morning. Every Saturday, I would wake up before the sun rose to spend the next several hours watching each cartoon series in that block of time. During the times when I was committed to other things like soccer games or going on family vacations, I would make sure to record the shows so that I could watch them as soon as possible instead of wait for the reruns to come.
My other obsession was with video games, which in a way also features stories that people obsess over. Much of my free time was spent inside trying to get through some action game or something silly like Sonic the Hedgehog. My brother and I would often have to team up to complete the story mode on a game, which was a way for us to bond though often times we wound up battling each other in real life just as much as we were battling against the enemy in the game. My parents had to find ways to limit our time in front of the TV and push us outside in order to get us to stop playing games so much.
Sure I enjoyed stories from literature as well. I may not have been the biggest Harry Potter fanatic, but every time a new release to the series came out, my dad, my brother, and myself would take turns reading the book as quick as possible and would have to try to patiently wait for whoever was holding on to the book to put it down in order to continue forward with the story. I eventually got into manga (basically Japanese comic books) and would borrow fat stacks of particular manga series from the library. Much of my time on car rides or my free time in my teenage years was spent trying to get through the manga versions of Dragon Ball or One Piece or Yu Yu Hakusho.
As a little kid, I too had obsessions. I was hooked on the cartoons I watched in my childhood, especially on Saturday morning. Every Saturday, I would wake up before the sun rose to spend the next several hours watching each cartoon series in that block of time. During the times when I was committed to other things like soccer games or going on family vacations, I would make sure to record the shows so that I could watch them as soon as possible instead of wait for the reruns to come.
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| My philosophy at age 9 |
Sure I enjoyed stories from literature as well. I may not have been the biggest Harry Potter fanatic, but every time a new release to the series came out, my dad, my brother, and myself would take turns reading the book as quick as possible and would have to try to patiently wait for whoever was holding on to the book to put it down in order to continue forward with the story. I eventually got into manga (basically Japanese comic books) and would borrow fat stacks of particular manga series from the library. Much of my time on car rides or my free time in my teenage years was spent trying to get through the manga versions of Dragon Ball or One Piece or Yu Yu Hakusho.
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| Visual references for those of you trying to figure out what the heck I'm talking about. |
Effect on the Culture
So, what kind of effect does this kind of obsession with stories have on our culture? Well, first off, you won't really understand too many jokes or shout-outs on TV or on the internet unless you are aware of what each current hit TV show or movie is about. Would you understand why someone calls you a Muggle or talks about going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry if you didn't know what Harry Potter was? Or would you be able to picture a Dalek, a Weeping Angel, or a Time Lord or understand what I mean by time being a ball of timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly stuff if you hadn't seen an episode of Doctor Who before?
Second, the way people obsess over these stories shows just how much time people devote to these stories. People are spending so much money on DVDs or on Netflix or on Hulu Plus trying to find each and every episode of their favorite show. They spend so much of their free time in front of the TV or computer instead of going out doing productive things, volunteering their time, or even just enjoying the great outdoors. Don't get me wrong, I too have experienced this kind of obsession before, but many times at the end of watching many episodes of a TV series I feel unproductive or that I wasted my time instead of being glad and satisfied that I committed myself to this particular story.
Second, the way people obsess over these stories shows just how much time people devote to these stories. People are spending so much money on DVDs or on Netflix or on Hulu Plus trying to find each and every episode of their favorite show. They spend so much of their free time in front of the TV or computer instead of going out doing productive things, volunteering their time, or even just enjoying the great outdoors. Don't get me wrong, I too have experienced this kind of obsession before, but many times at the end of watching many episodes of a TV series I feel unproductive or that I wasted my time instead of being glad and satisfied that I committed myself to this particular story.
Why Does It Matter?
Why do we care so much about these stories? Are the TV shows really that exciting that we seek a constant escape from our mundane existence by putting all of our time and energy into a series about a drug lord or a corrupt politician? Well, I think because majority of Americans live comfortably and have very few real world concerns (like how am I going to survive this week) then we have so much free time on our hands we want to be entertained constantly. And it is intriguing to get caught up in stories about good vs. evil, anti-heroes, battles for kingdoms, and everything else that allows us to examine our lives, morality, and mortality without having to put our comfortable lives in jeopardy.
And yet, should we be so absorbed in these stories that we should focus on nothing else outside of our work and family lives? No, because then our lives would begin to lose productivity and our purpose would be lost. We aren't meant to just sit around all day every day watching Game of Thrones. We are meant to go out and help those who are less fortunate. We are meant to work towards goals in our lives and focus on our purpose for being here. We are meant to live lives of adventure in reality instead of fantasy.
What would we do without these modern stories? Would we actually go out and volunteer our time to help the poor and the needy? Would we really spend our days outside either getting lost in the woods or playing sports? Or would we get absorbed in other things? Would we as a society become more literate if we obsess over books like we obsess over TV shows? Would books and plays become phenomenons in our contemporary society like movies and TV shows are (even though some books do become movie phenomenons)?
Why do we care so much about these stories? Are the TV shows really that exciting that we seek a constant escape from our mundane existence by putting all of our time and energy into a series about a drug lord or a corrupt politician? Well, I think because majority of Americans live comfortably and have very few real world concerns (like how am I going to survive this week) then we have so much free time on our hands we want to be entertained constantly. And it is intriguing to get caught up in stories about good vs. evil, anti-heroes, battles for kingdoms, and everything else that allows us to examine our lives, morality, and mortality without having to put our comfortable lives in jeopardy.
And yet, should we be so absorbed in these stories that we should focus on nothing else outside of our work and family lives? No, because then our lives would begin to lose productivity and our purpose would be lost. We aren't meant to just sit around all day every day watching Game of Thrones. We are meant to go out and help those who are less fortunate. We are meant to work towards goals in our lives and focus on our purpose for being here. We are meant to live lives of adventure in reality instead of fantasy.
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| Although for Bear Grylls, life of reality and life of fantasy are sometimes the same thing. |
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| Would people finally realize that every currently popular young adult novel is pretty the exact same story? |
What is the Balance?
My thoughts in this post are not meant to villainize these modern stories nor the people that obsess over them. Indeed, I am caught up in a dilemma considering I come from a performing arts field and hope to make a career out of telling/ performing stories that people enjoy. However, we as a society cannot just spend all of our time, energy, and money getting caught up in these TV shows and movies. As I said before, we are made for more. Now, this does not necessarily mean that people cannot enjoy a good TV series or that they should never sit down to become invested in a fantasy, so long as it does not compromise their morals nor acts as escapism from real life.
Can a person become invested in the stories found in modern TV hits? Sure, so long as one takes breaks between episodes and is more invested in family and friends and people in need than in the TV show itself. Can someone spend a weekend binge-watching a TV or movie series? Sure, as long as it only occurs on a rare basis. One year before college spring semester finals, a group of us got together to spend an entire 24 hours period watching the entire Harry Potter movie series and the next year we watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was a unique and rare experience and actually was a fun way to spend time with friends who are fellow fans of the series.
Can someone be a productive member of society and a committed fan of a modern story? I would say that's possible as long as their priorities are set correctly. If we cannot put down a video game controller to help somebody with a chore around the house, then priorities need to be reset. If we spend each weekend glued to the TV instead of spending that free time with friends and family or volunteering to help people, then priorities need to be reset. If we spend all of our money building up a DVD collection that isolates us and wastes our hard-earned money, then priorities need to be reset. Each of these situations have definitely applied to me at some point during my life and I have learned over time what my priorities should be and that I am not meant to be obsessed with these modern stories, but rather I am meant to enjoy entertainment in appropriate doses while at the same time being a productive and giving individual.
My thoughts in this post are not meant to villainize these modern stories nor the people that obsess over them. Indeed, I am caught up in a dilemma considering I come from a performing arts field and hope to make a career out of telling/ performing stories that people enjoy. However, we as a society cannot just spend all of our time, energy, and money getting caught up in these TV shows and movies. As I said before, we are made for more. Now, this does not necessarily mean that people cannot enjoy a good TV series or that they should never sit down to become invested in a fantasy, so long as it does not compromise their morals nor acts as escapism from real life.
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| Meaning we should all move on and quit watching this show, people! |
Can someone be a productive member of society and a committed fan of a modern story? I would say that's possible as long as their priorities are set correctly. If we cannot put down a video game controller to help somebody with a chore around the house, then priorities need to be reset. If we spend each weekend glued to the TV instead of spending that free time with friends and family or volunteering to help people, then priorities need to be reset. If we spend all of our money building up a DVD collection that isolates us and wastes our hard-earned money, then priorities need to be reset. Each of these situations have definitely applied to me at some point during my life and I have learned over time what my priorities should be and that I am not meant to be obsessed with these modern stories, but rather I am meant to enjoy entertainment in appropriate doses while at the same time being a productive and giving individual.
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