{"id":87514,"date":"2024-02-20T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=87514"},"modified":"2024-02-19T20:41:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T01:41:33","slug":"welcome-to-dopamine-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2024\/02\/20\/welcome-to-dopamine-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Dopamine culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ted Gioia<\/a> thinks the annual “State of the Union” address is boring, but a much more relevant thing would be a “State of the Culture” address … and he’s got lots of concerns about modern day culture:<\/p>\n

Many creative people think these are the only options \u2014 both for them and their audience. Either they give the audience what it wants (the entertainer’s job) or else they put demands on the public (that’s where art begins).<\/p>\n

But they’re dead wrong.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s smarter to view the creative economy like a food chain. If you’re an artist \u2014 or are striving to become one \u2014 your reality often feels like this. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Until recently, the entertainment industry has been on a growth tear \u2014 so much so, that anything artsy or indie or alternative got squeezed as collateral damage.<\/p>\n

But even this disturbing picture isn’t disturbing enough. That’s because it misses the single biggest change happening right now.<\/p>\n

We’re witnessing the birth of a post-entertainment culture. And it won’t help the arts. In fact, it won’t help society at all. <\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Here’s a better model of the cultural food chain in the year 2024. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction<\/em>. Or call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. But it’s not art or entertainment, just ceaseless activity.<\/p>\n

The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.<\/p>\n

It’s a huge business, and will soon be larger than arts and entertainment combined. Everything is getting turned into TikTok \u2014 an aptly named platform for a business based on stimuli that must be repeated after only a few ticks of the clock.<\/p>\n

TikTok made a fortune with fast-paced scrolling video. And now Facebook \u2014 once a place to connect with family and friends \u2014 is imitating it. So long, Granny, hello Reels<\/em>. Twitter has done the same. And, of course, Instagram, YouTube, and everybody else trying to get rich on social media. <\/p>\n

\n

This is more than just the hot trend of 2024. It can last forever \u2014 because it’s based on body chemistry, not fashion or aesthetics.<\/p>\n

Our brain rewards these brief bursts of distraction. The neurochemical dopamine is released, and this makes us feel good \u2014 so we want to repeat the stimulus.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

So you need to ditch that simple model of art versus entertainment. And even “distraction” is just a stepping stone toward the real goal nowadays \u2014 which is addiction<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here’s the future cultural food chain \u2014 pursued aggressively by tech platforms that now dominate every aspect of our lives<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The tech platforms aren’t like the Medici in Florence, or those other rich patrons of the arts. They don’t want to find the next Michelangelo or Mozart. They want to create a world of junkies \u2014 because they will be the dealers.<\/p>\n

Addiction is the goal.<\/p>\n

They don’t say it openly, but they don’t need to. Just look at what they do. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ted Gioia thinks the annual “State of the Union” address is boring, but a much more relevant thing would be a “State of the Culture” address … and he’s got lots of concerns about modern day culture: Many creative people think these are the only options \u2014 both for them and their audience. Either they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[831,28,15,13],"tags":[59,102,262,200,139,593],"class_list":["post-87514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-media","category-technology","category-usa","tag-addiction","tag-art","tag-culture","tag-music","tag-psychology","tag-socialmedia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-mLw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87518,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87514\/revisions\/87518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}