Starting last semester, I have been eating most of my meals alone in my dorm due to COVID-19. And being a busy KAIST student, I decided to make the most of this serene and precious break, which led to a habit of watching something from either YouTube or Netflix while eating. I filled the first few months by binge-watching shows I’ve been meaning to watch. But once I’d powered through a few and no longer had a go-to show for every meal, I found myself scrolling through both apps without settling on anything until I was actually done eating.

It feels a lot like when I’m digging through my bursting closet, and still thinking to myself, “gosh, there’s literally nothing to wear!” We are living in a world flooded with media content, where there is more to watch than the amount we possibly could in a lifetime. However, the more there is, the harder it is to pick out the true gem (or should I say, jaem, meaning fun in Korean). The abundance of options is becoming overwhelming, and what’s worse is their similarity, which makes the decision-making even more difficult. There are just too many makeup tutorials, vlogs and song covers on YouTube. K-dramas can’t do much without making everyone fall in love with each other, the same way in which Netflix originals can’t drop the flashy primary colors when designing sets.

Meanwhile, producers are growing pressured to produce something that has all the popularity ingredients, yet are unique enough to stand out. As a result, they chase after creating something juicy and intriguing, until they end up walking on a tightrope between “interesting” and “provocative”. A good example is what happened with “Korean Toy Soldiers”, produced by the YouTube channel Physical Gallery. The first season of the show invited six celebrities, most of whom have never experienced any form of military training before, to participate in a special Multi UDT/SEAL Assaulting Tactics (MUSAT) training camp for five days. Season one reaped great success with more than 50 million cumulative views, which naturally led to a second season. But to distinguish itself from the first season, the intensity of both physical and mental training was dramatically exaggerated, to the extent that a large portion of the viewers expressed discomfort. The controversy became overly heated, until personal attacks towards the production team grew out of hand and the channel had to take down all of its videos.

But the problem does not lie only in the process of production — the viewers are also becoming increasingly impatient and picky. I, for one, prefer shows or videos that last about 30 or 40 minutes, and longer ones are only for when I am determined to make a commitment. Even then, I tend to distract myself with other activities like checking my phone, while keeping only one eye on the screen. Media must hence compete not only amongst themselves, but with other abundant forms of entertainment. Contents must be short enough to keep the audience focused throughout, but at the same time deep and intricate enough to satisfy their heightened taste. They must be able to capture the attention of the impatient audience within the first few minutes, but cannot drop in quality, as the audience are always open to the option of moving along to a different show. There are just too many checkboxes to tick, and the list does nothing but increase.

It is indeed an unfortunate collaboration of a generation that’s too used to being spoon-fed entertainment and anxious producers who either end up converging to a uniform style of contents or cross a line by trying to stand out. Videography is produced and consumed too quickly, often without being given a second thought. Its value as an art form is being more and more depreciated, and perhaps it is time we went back to the basics. Rather than searching for a quick and easy laugh, the audience may at times decide to stop and give “boring” shows a chance to see what the artist behind it has to say. Producers may once in a while focus more on expressing themselves rather than on what the audience wants to see. For videography to survive for both parties, we must bring back the art in it.