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Comment by jl6 | Hacker News Reader

Nobody ever thought to themselves: I sure could go for some content right now.

I can't explain why, but I always cringe a little when I hear someone say that they "consume content."

Maybe its because I can't tell if brings up animalistic connotations (a pack of feral hipsters picking at the remains of an endangered podcast on the Serengeti), or if they are intentionally being elitist ("It would be a waste of time to simply read Chomsky's work, an educated person would make the effort consume it.")

I get the opposite vibe - you read literature, you consume content like it's generic slop and the quality isn't that important.

Agreed. It’s like fast food, but for your brain.

Fast food should not be consumed.

Except on Fridays.

Fast food isn’t inherently bad.

What most consumers want doesn’t align with what is healthy to eat. You could get water and a decent salad from chick-fil-a, but when nobody buys the health options they eventually get taken off the menu.

With the same long-term health benefits.

A friend of mine was playing the game Slay the Spire and was loving it -- he said something along the lines of, "It's very well designed, and there's so much content!" That always kind of skeeved me out. I think because there's this odd self-awareness of it all?

Ha. This is is exactly what turns me off of Slay the Spire. It's a filler game, full of filler content, designed to fill your time. And not, as far as I can tell, much more than that.

"Content" is a commodity. I don't see a huge difference between the folks who view creative work as "content" and talk about it as if it's fungible and can be valued per uni of weight, and art speculators who buy up works of art they've never seen and then leave it warehoused in some freehold somewhere.

I can't really blame people who do creative work for catering to folks who think about their work this way - everybody's got to eat - but I'll still gladly bemoan the pervasive cultural debasement.

Couldn’t really disagree more, although I guess I see where you’re coming from. Slay the Spire to me lacks “content” at least the way you’re using it - there are 4 classes that essentially have never changed and the levels are pseudo randomly generated and otherwise don’t change much run to run.

However, attaining very high levels in that game requires a depth of skill, strategy, and math that is constantly startling to me, and I used to play card games professionally.

I don’t even like deck builders and STS hooked me for solid 30hrs

This is exactly why my 12 yr old by likes Genshin Impact (a Zelda type game on the phone): "it always got these new characters" etc. Like infinite scrolling, it's an endless loop to get more gems so you can level up so you can get more new characters as they come up so you can get more gems so you can level up ad infinitum. It's basically like an advanced candy crush that you can just zone out and mindlessly do forever. I hate it.

I think your comment kinda provides the reason why the term “content” is used; there are so many verticals out there that its just easiest to say “I’m a content creator.” From there, if the audience remains captive, you can explain that you make videos about sewing sweaters with embedded controllers for cats.

Also, don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty conflicted on the term. I just like to believe people are using it in good faith when they describe themselves, and don’t just see “content” as a means towards an end.

It makes perfect sense to use the word content where it’s a convenient abstraction. But humans don’t watch/read/play or fall in love with abstractions. The specifics matter.

Not to the investor.

You are not a gadget. Your life is not a vertical.

Where did I say anyone is a vertical?

Sometimes I wish I was a gadget, then my life would be soo much easier.

I really hate the use of the word "consume" much more than the word "content" in this context.

I know my up-vote of this comment is supposed to be enough, but I just have to add, as an extra praise @jl6 here:

That's the funniest sentence I've heard in a long time.

“Nobody ever thought to themselves: I sure could go for some content right now.”

Love it love it love it.

Agreed, that sentence really satisfied my appetite for content.

This entire thread is some of the best content I've consumed in a while!

Loads of people think "it's film night" or "I want to watch a film" and then "what shall I watch?"

The same with music: "I'll put some music on ... what should I put on?"

And with food: "I want to eat something, what shall I eat?"

People turn the radio on while driving, or the TV on in the background, for 'company' without caring what's on it.

People pick up something - anything - to read while on the toilet, not caring if it's literature, magazine, or the ingredients of the shampoo bottle.

The desirable feature is entertainment, distraction, novelty, escapism, sound instead of silence, activity instead of rigor mortis, ideas instead of void, life instead of death. Not just actionable facts to be studied.

People think that, just not in those words.

I remember in the 90s "content is king" was a catchphrase, this was before the modern internet. Though I had no idea it was a Bill Gates phrase, found this while looking for more info on it (since it's been ages since I've thought that way, after the post 2007/2011-ish shift of the internet).

https://medium.com/@HeathEvans/content-is-king-essay-by-bill...

They didn't use to, but now they do.

Heh, my brother-in-law have described “content” as being the “love language” of our boomer dads.. the sharing of material (surprisingly often on TikTok these days) that none of us really care about yet continually gets sent out to us. Seemingly the favoured way to keep in touch.

Not a boomer but honestly every year that passes I can tell my cognitive decline by how much harder it is to not send these things to my kids.

I have a folder full of them marked 'inheritance' so that I can be assured my kids will find it when they scour my computer after I'm dead. They are going to be so stoked!

As someone that is on the receiving end of such a content feed, I thank you for your attempt not to send things.

Have you considered opening a high interest account for the inheritance?

Inflation is a sad fact of life.

A funny picture that would get a heartfelt laugh out of most anyone this year, could be eliciting as little as a sensible chuckle 30 years from now!

That’s why it’s important to not just shove all your memes onto some USB drive and sticking it in the mattress. Think wisely, let the Meme Bank be the custodian of all your funny pictures and videos.

Just by looking at a period of 10 years back compared to now, we can see a stark difference between the meme collections that families kept at home vs the meme collections of families that kept their memes in Meme Bank.

There are two factors that contribute by an outsized amount to the lowering of value of the meme collections of average Joe over the years:

Firstly, resolution and compression artifacts. Where ten years ago a 640 by 480 pixels jpeg would have garnered applause from the people you showed it to, the people of today expect more. And all you’d be getting today for that once glorious meme, would be responses asking you “y’all got any more of them pixels?”

Secondly, stale pop-cultural reference. That meme you’ve got referencing a scene from a movie from last year. Yeah, it might still be funny today. In thirty years, usually not so much.

Here at Meme Bank, we take care of these things and that’s how we’re able to keep your meme collection as funny as ever.

“But…”, I hear you say, “these memes hold sentimental value to me, and they are reflective of my kind of humor and of my personality.”

Believe you me when I say, we know that and we respect that. That is why our Meme Experts here at Meme Bank work tightly with our customers to ensure that your meme collections remain true to your individuality.

So don’t hesitate, call us today at 555-MEME. That’s 555-MEME.

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