Media Resonance Scale
I’ve been pondering an effective way to consume media or literary information. “Amusing Ourselves to Death” noted that recent media forms, like news, have an outsized resonance, the quality by which the media emotionally resonates with the viewer. This concept is somewhat novel as such we lack a way to classify outsized resonance within the entertainment we consume. This article aims to present key ideas to conceptualize the resonance of consumed media to help the reader understand what media to internalize and allow them to better discern what media is objectively important.
Designing a resonance taxonomy is challenging because it’s fundamentally emotional and hard to quantify since each readers perception of what makes important media is relative. Hence, this taxonomy aims to rely on foundations that are not inherently subjective. We aim to define the categories contributing to the taxonomy as follows: fictional quality, temporal sensitivity, internal advertisement, geographical location, and temporal location.
- Fictional Quality
Whether the medium or statement is fictional in nature denotes the qualities to which the material is relevant. If it is fiction, there is inherently less similarity of the medium to reality than the text rooted in reality. I just want to say that there is less information contained within fictional texts than non-fictional texts. However, in non-fictional texts, it is more likely that the information contained within it is more applicable to reality, as it is fundamentally more deeply rooted in it. This fails to grasp the nature of higher-order thinking that can be embedded within the text. However, if you are interested in such concepts this would hardly be for “entertainment,” but rather scholarly elucidation.
- Temporal Sensitivity
Whether the medium is time-sensitive raises questions about the media’s attention and whether it preys on human fear of missing out. Examples of time-sensitive media can be in the form of a time-sensitive preview before the entertainment or the entertainment itself as a time-limited concept.
- Internal Advertisement
The concept is whether the entertainment acts as part of a larger system projecting internalized beliefs to increase attention to associated entertainment. For example, if someone was doing a watch review video, it’s logical that someone would be more interested in the watches after viewing the video. As a result, the observer develops an outsized resonance for the watches through the media.
- Geographic Location
A fourth factor to consider is whether the entertainment or medium consumed is in the same geographical location as the observer. For example, reading about Saturn’s moon is less impactful than reading about the ground under your feet.
- Temporal Location
Lastly, consider the text’s temporal nature. Does it describe phenomena in the present, past, future, or a non-existent timeline? For illustration, reading about past geological movements in your hometown resonates far less than reading about current movements.
Conclusion:
The above denotes the factors contributing to wasted attention. The following questions denote the risk of attentional waste and outsized resonance:
- Is the medium fictional?
- Is the entertainment time-sensitive?
- Does the entertainment encourage further related consumption?
- Does the entertainment not reference or impact my current geographical location?
- Does the entertainment not depend on my current temporal location?
If yes to all of the above on an outsized resonance scale, the media gets a score of 5 for each of the above questions answered yes to. If the opposite, then a score of 0. The closer to 0, the more objective and actionable the media. I indulge in second-degree media.
Many of the above qualities depend on your priorities. For example, if you’re interested in Saturn’s moons as an astronomer or past geological movements as a geologist, the questions about temporal and geographic location don’t reflect your base resonance for the media you are concerned with. However, the above aims to be a good thought model to allow dynamic media resonance classification for informed consumption.