I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years.
Wilbur WrightRead
Our growing ability to eliminate the slow-moving aspects of entertainment and go hopping from one peak to another is not without cost. Stand-up comics, movie-makers and others who earn their living entertaining no longer "waste" time with setups and plot development, lest we reach for the remote and click them off our screen. The result is a loss of subtlety, anticipation and nuance and, in the process, a coarsening of our discourse.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how the rapid consumption of entertainment has led to a decline in storytelling quality and depth.
William Raspberry points out that as our ability to access instant entertainment increases, creators feel pressured to forgo the rich elements of storytelling, such as setups and plot development, to keep audiences engaged. This shift results in a superficial experience where the subtleties and nuances essential for deep understanding and appreciation of art and storytelling are lost, ultimately affecting the quality of communication and discourse in society.
Themes
EntertainmentStorytellingSubtletyDiscourseTechnology
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about modern media consumption, this quote illustrates the consequences of quick entertainment.
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