In our daily lives, we often find ourselves in a familiar situation. Sitting on the couch, eyes fixed on a screen, waiting for something to captivate our attention. Before we realize it, the day has slipped away, and we've spent countless hours mindlessly consuming content that barely holds our interest.
Unraveling the Era of Junk Food TV
Understanding the Phenomenon
It's not uncommon these days to witness viewers squandering an excessive amount of time on shows that they know aren't of high quality or enjoyment. Afterward, they often feel unfulfilled or even guilty for indulging in such passive entertainment. Take television, for instance. It's as if we're presented with a bag of chips, our favorite flavor, but upon opening, most of it is air, with only a small portion at the bottom. We're left craving more, yet there's nothing substantial left. This is the essence of junk food TV.There has always been a variety of TV genres, such as trash TV (exploitative and overly melodramatic), comfort TV (older and nostalgic), and more recently, mid TV (highly produced but lacking in substance). However, junk food TV stands out due to the way it's consumed. It's the shows, both new and old, that are served to us by algorithms trained on our past preferences and automatically played at every opportunity, much like the enticing candy section at the checkout aisle of every store.The Role of Algorithms
TikTok's algorithm is renowned for its ability to keep people engaged for extended periods by intuiting their wants. Streaming platforms are aiming to achieve the same thing. For example, Netflix's algorithms provide granular insights into our TV choices. They analyze how we navigate through its menus, which shows we bypass, stop to preview, and ultimately click on and watch. If we love a show like Bridgerton and rewatch Season 2, it's not surprising to find the new season of Heartstopper on our homepage with an image of Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey to lure us in, even if his role is just a cameo.This model of marathon-watching, pioneered by Netflix, where full seasons are dropped instead of one episode at a time and natural pauses like ad breaks are eliminated, set the stage for junk food TV. At first, it seemed like an abundance of quality content during the Peak TV era with shows like Mad Men and Game of Thrones. But as time has passed, and the popularity of limited series and the short lifespan of most new shows have increased, marathoning remains as popular as ever. People are drawn to shows that are easy to half-watch or at least spend more time watching, and this is the metric that streaming platforms are focused on.The Impact on TV Viewing Habits
How we spend our precious time now plays a significant role in determining which shows get greenlit, renewed, or canceled. Streamers even give notes to writers to make shows more "second screen" friendly, meaning easier to follow while doing other things like sending emails or scrolling through Instagram. Sabrina Carpenter even jokes about it in her Netflix Christmas special, expressing gratitude to the audience for "half-watching a big screen while scrolling through social media on a smaller screen."This trend has been exacerbated by the short lifespan of TV shows. Limited series have become popular, and most new shows are canceled after just one or two seasons. This discourages audiences from getting too invested in what they're watching and instead encourages them to stick to safe options, either old, nostalgic TV or shows they don't care enough about to become emotionally invested in. TV has become as fleeting as the last few videos we swiped on TikTok or the last bag of chips we forgot we already ate.The Training Effect
The secret is that while viewers are teaching platforms about their tastes, the platforms are also shaping and training our viewing habits. This ties in with the "revealed preference" theory, where consumers reveal their true preferences through their purchasing habits rather than what they claim their tastes to be. It's not that we consciously choose to watch hours of a certain show, but if we look at the amount of time we spend on different types of shows lately, it becomes evident.Frankly, junk food TV is hard to resist. It's like being unable to stop eating just one Flamin' Hot Cheeto. In a world where decision paralysis is a common concern and the options seem endless, it's tempting to simply sit down and hit play on the first thing that catches our eye. As comedian Clara Sterling says, "People want to feel joy right now. They want something that doesn't feel too demanding and allows them to relax and enjoy."Taking the decision-making out of our hands at the end of a long workday is appealing, similar to scrolling on social media. But this reduces TV to a more passive experience, leaving us with an ultra-processed TV feed constantly playing in the background. The question remains: are we still truly watching, or are we just passively consuming?
