Media in 2026 - Everything is Different Now

A Small Rant About the Way Things Are

We like to pretend we’re the same as we used to be, but things are ever changing. Sure, the obvious thing to say is “we’re non-stop doomscrolling on our phones”, but we’re doing it differently to five years ago.

Photo by Matt C on Unsplash

NEWS

It’s impossible to get reliable news now. Everyone is fighting to shape the meaning of events as they happen, there’s nobody out there who can present it in black and white without telling us what to believe.

We all watched the same video of Renee Good yet nobody knows what actually happened. Liberal media is certain she was just turning the vehicle to the right. Conservative media is certain Renee was an aggressive agitator using her car as a weapon.

You can’t watch that video without hearing the voices of everyone online explaining to you what it is you saw. It's only a few seconds long, with so much context missing, yet we all proclaim to be experts.

The government have already decided the meaning. How weird is that? A person is killed and instead of letting the police figure it out, you have the Vice President at a podium.

Where can we get real, non-biased news from?

SOCIAL MEDIA

Yes, you’re obsessed with social media and so am I. But --- not as much as we were six years ago. X no longer exists as a serious platform. If you still open the app it’s only because of muscle memory.

Instagram used to have your friends and family. Now, it’s just a bunch of ‘influencers’ telling you how to live a better life.

Their lives are not better than yours. How do I know? Because of how much they’re online!

Somewhere along the way we were taught that success is posting selfies from Dubai. Turns out happiness is sitting at home with a lamp on, reading an old novel.

Social media is still prevalent but it’s losing its grip on people. We check the apps out of habit, but we’re no longer engaged.

MOVIES

I actually think movies are getting better. In the peak ‘woke’ era, people were afraid to tell stories. People got petrified and the only things being made were stories that had the ‘correct’ points of view. People were too afraid of online criticism that they got scared to have an edge. To say something that could be perceived the wrong way.

Now I feel like things are changing. Films are finding their groove. You can go to the cinema and be pleasantly surprised.

We want the diversity; we want films that come from all types of voices, but the creatives need to feel free to tell stories without shushing themselves.

I'm not saying it should be the Wild West, but that for too long now people have been second guessing themselves in order to play it safe.

TV SERIES

They’re bland. We get excited every now and again by something, but most TV now is like most coffee shops. They have different names, but inside they’re all the same.

We are not in a golden age of TV. There is no new ‘Sopranos.’ ‘Pluribus’ was fun for a few episodes but just when you think you have a new favourite show, it hits you with a ton of filler episodes.

And every week there’s a new crime drama that’s exactly like the last one.

Problem is, the stakes are lower now. When Netflix gave us ‘House of Cards’ we were ready to be amazed. We craved greatness.

Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash

Now we see the red Netflix logo and we deem a show a success if it holds our attention. ‘Second Screen Viewing’ became a buzz term, where shows are made that give us some background viewing while we scroll through TikTok.

AI

AI has already changed everything. Those who oppose it are being left in the shadows, because pretty much the entirety of culture is being shaped through it.

Your boss is running his ideas through Copilot. Your friends are getting advice on how to talk to you by pasting your messages into their AI therapy threads. And creators of TV shows are turning to it for plot twists.

The main problem with AI is that it’s very good. It can do everything. And once you get hooked, you rely on it.

Take an article like this one. It’s honest, it’s first draft-y, it’s opinionated --- and it may be good or it may be terrible, I don’t know. This is a good thing, because it’s vulnerable! But there’s the temptation to run it through Chat GPT and say ‘is this any good?’

The advice it would give, would be solid. It would improve the structure and improve the points I’m making. But would it actually be me, anymore?

And then what happens when everyone is writing everything with the help of AI? We would never get another Jack Kerouac, or Van Morrison. Everything, over time, would become the same. Not because AI spits out the same material, but because we'll all be outsourcing our judgement to a robot.

BOOKS

Books remain brilliant.

Your brain forgets this.

Books seem slow. Our attention can no longer work to their pace.

But it’s worth fighting for.

Because sitting down, reading a few chapters of a book, it improves your mental health, your breathing, your intelligence, your imagination.

ALGORITHMS

Algorithms are the opposite of books.

With a book, you decide what you want to read and then you sit with it for days, weeks or months.

The algorithm is not something you choose. You log onto YouTube thinking you want to watch a video about canoes but then the algo leads you to a strongly opinionated piece about Venezuela. And you don’t even realise you lost all free will and decision making in the process.

Algorithms are truly ruining our brains. Used to be you’d sprint down to your local record store because the band you love had a record out. Now, you exhaustedly open Spotify and you’re served a personalised mix of AI music and you don’t even know it’s AI.

Instagram and Tiktok are taking hours out of your day. You know more about right-wing politics and Manchester United’s manager search than you knew was possible, but all you really wanted to do was log on to Insta to see pictures of your niece’s birthday.

The algorithm is shaping how we are entertained, how we process politics, and how we communicate with our friends. We are no longer controlling these things ourselves.

PODCASTS

Podcasts are great if you can find your way to the right ones.

But for the most part, we’re just using them to pass time. To help us on the commute.

You try new shows every few days but tend to return to your safe favourites.

In theory, podcasts can help you listen to an endless array of voices and ideas on every topic you’ve ever been interested in. But do you really manage to make the most of it or do you tend to just listen to that thing which helps you get through your gym session?

PROPAGANDA

This takes us back to the topic of news. Most people are no longer reading news articles. They get their knowledge of the world from whatever WhatsApp videos they receive within their echo chamber.

Whether you lean left or right, you’re receiving videos about how the other side are evil.

The dehumanisation of ‘others’ is as big as its been in my lifetime. Want to be racist? Someone has twenty videos to send you to prove it’s the right way to be.

Those videos you’re receiving in WhatsApp groups are not news, they’re not even opinions, they’re propaganda. Eventually, we’re going to get bored of convincing ourselves that the other side is stupid. It doesn’t heal anything, doesn’t make us grow, it just makes the anger stronger.

We no longer hear the opinions, ideas and knowledge of experts, nor of ordinary well-meaning people. The internet has put the fringe cases front and centre. Crazies against crazies, with all of us watching videos on social media, while texting our friends saying ‘did you see this!?’

SUMMARY

We’re in strange times. People want to know the truth, but either they can’t find it, or they’re captured by social media savvy zealots.

I don't think any of us wake up, planning to be enraged. By Tiktok and YouTube and CNN/Fox News thrive on you being offended.

Truth is, there's a lot to be offended by, but not enough time to really think through what we're witnessing. So instead, we pick a side and double down on believing that everything that our side says is the gospel truth.

It's an attention economy. I'm convinced we'd all be better off shutting down and reading some books, but I'm also aware that's the idealised, nostalgic version of me talking. The truth is, we're different now. We don't read, or watch, we consume. We're hungry, and they keep feeding us.

We go to the gym for our bodies, we eat greens for our digestive systems, but what are we doing for our brains?