Totally agree, Ed. Where has the pushback gone? Where are the student protests? How did we create a who cares, whatever generation? I expect someone will blame COVID. But the fact is, as you point out, TV has become beige. My daughters ask us to turn off the news, they prefer blissful ignorance to the horrors of Gaza and the boredom of the economy. I think it is because they have been robbed of their voice, like many adults, especially those of us who try to lead on the issues that are dear to us, we feel like no one listens. My own MP will only engage if it's a matter she represents (water pollution), anything about our industry, and she doesn't answer, and I used a lot of shoe leather to get her elected, and voted for her in the candidacy election. Today, you just get one of the standard emails about how busy they are and only deal with constituency matters. Write to a minister, and they tell you to go through your local MP. It's like trying to get something sorted at a telecom company, and an endless circle of nothing, and in action. SO i get the "whatever" generation. I can totally understand why the latest makeup palette or dance craze trumps the issues of today. I get why giving 30 or 60 minutes of our time to a TV show demands a dividend, and today, there's little payout.
It's always interesting to read articles like this from industry analysts, who reference the past to highlight the subversive behavior of youth and how it supposedly changed the world. Cut to 2025, and that same generation who once screamed to the sound of The Clash are now the ones making decisions in high-level positions in TV and film. And those decisions are, more often than not, sanitized and risk-averse.
I agree that younger audiences have shifted their habits and platforms, largely due to the type of content that circulates on social media—niche, almost personalized material that feels more authentic and aligned with what we consider "youthful." What the author fails to mention is that much of this content is engineered to drive engagement, often through outrage. There's even a term for it: “rage baiting.” And it's all powered by algorithms designed to be addictive.
Television evolved precisely to avoid relying on this kind of mechanism, and to establish itself as a mature medium. Regulation, self-regulation, failed experiments, and unnecessary controversies all shaped what TV is today. Social media, both as a platform and a culture, is still in its adolescence just like much of its audience. It too will face growing pains.
Hi there! Thanks for commenting. I am talking in particular about a very specific type of content - not stuff that is designed to "rage bait". So my "snog a granny" example wasn't rage bait at the time, it's what the producers thought was hilarious and had never been done before. Again, most of the content my teenage boys watch is for laughs - not for activism, so the outrage / rage baiting element doesn't stack for me - again that's for older people who do get annoyed by digital content. However, you are exactly right that algorithms absolutely play a very important piece of discoverability and super serving whatever you want to watch. What my main argument focuses on is that kind of content once existed on TV, now it doesn't. Thats why young people don't watch traditional TV - because it doesn't speak to them. It's a simple as that I'm afraid.
Totally agree, Ed. Where has the pushback gone? Where are the student protests? How did we create a who cares, whatever generation? I expect someone will blame COVID. But the fact is, as you point out, TV has become beige. My daughters ask us to turn off the news, they prefer blissful ignorance to the horrors of Gaza and the boredom of the economy. I think it is because they have been robbed of their voice, like many adults, especially those of us who try to lead on the issues that are dear to us, we feel like no one listens. My own MP will only engage if it's a matter she represents (water pollution), anything about our industry, and she doesn't answer, and I used a lot of shoe leather to get her elected, and voted for her in the candidacy election. Today, you just get one of the standard emails about how busy they are and only deal with constituency matters. Write to a minister, and they tell you to go through your local MP. It's like trying to get something sorted at a telecom company, and an endless circle of nothing, and in action. SO i get the "whatever" generation. I can totally understand why the latest makeup palette or dance craze trumps the issues of today. I get why giving 30 or 60 minutes of our time to a TV show demands a dividend, and today, there's little payout.
It's always interesting to read articles like this from industry analysts, who reference the past to highlight the subversive behavior of youth and how it supposedly changed the world. Cut to 2025, and that same generation who once screamed to the sound of The Clash are now the ones making decisions in high-level positions in TV and film. And those decisions are, more often than not, sanitized and risk-averse.
I agree that younger audiences have shifted their habits and platforms, largely due to the type of content that circulates on social media—niche, almost personalized material that feels more authentic and aligned with what we consider "youthful." What the author fails to mention is that much of this content is engineered to drive engagement, often through outrage. There's even a term for it: “rage baiting.” And it's all powered by algorithms designed to be addictive.
Television evolved precisely to avoid relying on this kind of mechanism, and to establish itself as a mature medium. Regulation, self-regulation, failed experiments, and unnecessary controversies all shaped what TV is today. Social media, both as a platform and a culture, is still in its adolescence just like much of its audience. It too will face growing pains.
Hi there! Thanks for commenting. I am talking in particular about a very specific type of content - not stuff that is designed to "rage bait". So my "snog a granny" example wasn't rage bait at the time, it's what the producers thought was hilarious and had never been done before. Again, most of the content my teenage boys watch is for laughs - not for activism, so the outrage / rage baiting element doesn't stack for me - again that's for older people who do get annoyed by digital content. However, you are exactly right that algorithms absolutely play a very important piece of discoverability and super serving whatever you want to watch. What my main argument focuses on is that kind of content once existed on TV, now it doesn't. Thats why young people don't watch traditional TV - because it doesn't speak to them. It's a simple as that I'm afraid.