Everything Outside Our Bubbles
John Ink2Quill Editorial
www.ink2quill.com

The media and internet sources always bombard us with the same topics, the same themes, similar stories, and similar memes. Why is that and what is the effect of not challenging the ideas we’re bombarded with? Let’s go over some of those thoughts and ideas that monopolize our attentions and minds. Let’s challenge the bubbles we live in for once.

Money and all forms of wealth, warfare in all it’s forms, prices and luxury, celebrities and politicians, and sometimes health, although not enough in my opinion are all the topics that entertainment dwells on. Those are some of the common topics in stories today. Don’t get me wrong. Some of those stories with those topics are very good ones. Think of a good bank heist movie, gangster film or action film. Think of the few good war films like “Platoon”, “The Thin Red Line”, “Shindler’s List”, “Deer Hunter”, “Glory” and of course “Apocalypse Now”. These are all excellent films but for every good film in these genres there are many more that are not worth the watch. Most are garbage even. You might argue that people have a right to make garbage films in the same way that people have a right to self expression. I agree completely with the right of self expression and the freedom of artists to exercise their craft. The problem is in the repetition of themes and stereotypes in the films and stories of big media. The problem is that this repetition is a form of censorship and some would argue that it’s also a form of social engineering. Both of those opinions are very serious in a society that prides itself on freedom of self expression.

The question might be to ask ourselves what are the new themes and topics to be explored? How can we venture out past the bubble of what we are comfortable seeing? One time when I watched a story that surprised me and made me feel uncomfortable was when I was watching George R. R. Martin’s “Game of Thrones” series on TV. The scene when the author killed off the character of Ned Stark after we, the audience, were getting to like him so much. That scene shook me. I remember feeling like an injustice had been committed in real life as if Ned was a flesh and blood person. What a good story. I could not believe what I was watching. Another scene in that series was the scene known as “The Red Wedding” when our favorite family was practically wiped out in a very savage way. I could not believe what I was watching. There were videos online of people screaming as they watched the scene. It really was TV history. My point is that giving the audience something unexpected is a sure way to leave your comfort bubble and outrage is a good sign of that.

One silly and disturbing trend in entertainment is to try to out-do other stories with violence or shock. So many of those scripts go out of their way to give us a flashy hook in the story and all that does is make their desperation for our viewership obvious. This could be the fault of having too much content for the viewer to choose from and so the shows are doing their best to out compete all the other shows. But where will all this go? Where will this shock journey take us?

These are all questions for the best artists and creators to answer. And they will.

Written by John Ink2Quill

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