The Front Office

Modern life provides us with so many choices.  We can tailor our daily experiences to be exactly what we want them to be.  Focus on what we like; what brings us joy.  Shut out all the rest.  On the surface this feels like a good thing.

But is it?

On a recent road trip with my kids, I realized something: unlimited choice isn’t expanding their world. It’s shrinking it.

It started with music.  Back when CDs were the primary medium, you bought an album because you loved a single or trusted the artist. You popped it into the player and listened to the whole thing. A few catchy tracks jumped out immediately, while others felt like filler on first listen. 

But your choices were limited.  You may be on a roadtrip yourself, armed with a discman and just that one CD.  You’d start just listening to the catchy songs, but those would get old after a while, so you’d listen to the whole album.  Even the songs you didn’t like initially.  Oftentimes those songs would grow on you.  Upon multiple listenings you’d pick up the lyrics or find something in those tracks that resonated, once you allowed yourself to get past the surface of the song.   At least for me, those songs would ultimately end up being my favorites as they were more substance than flash.

But that experience is one my kids have entirely avoided.  They are armed with a literal unlimited music library.  If a song doesn’t catch their ear within 5-10 seconds they skip it and they will never revisit that track later.  They aren’t equipped with just one album.  They have all the albums.  

This is also true for other media, like movies or tv shows.  They don’t know how to sit through 15 minutes (or 3 episodes) of story development to get to the ‘good stuff’.  They can just go to the unlimited library across multiple streaming platforms and find something that gives them immediate satisfaction.

I can’t count the times I’ve had them watch a movie that I adored from my childhood and uttered some version of the phrase, “Just wait.  It’s about to get good”.  That’s a muscle I’ve tried to strengthen with my children, but I fear I’ve lost the battle.  The apps are too good at what they do.

Stuck in the car for hours, I realized this isn’t just a music problem. The same instant-gratification loop governs almost everything now. Most concerning, how we consume ideas.

You can tailor your feeds to never see an opinion or idea you don’t agree with.  With a few clicks you can make sure any belief you hold is never challenged.  In fact, with tight enough controls you can make sure you’re never exposed to any sort of outside view.  These platforms aren’t designed to make us stronger as a people. It’s purely to keep you logging back in.

And like knowing my kids will never stumble upon the nondescript track they’ve ignored, it makes me sad for whatever else they will never be exposed to as they go through life.  

Like the 9th track on Hot Fuss that you skipped on your first dozen listens.