On free will

One glorious Friday evening. All of your friends on unsocial media start blabbering on about this new film/series you’ve got to, must watch. Immediately. It’s a must-see, a work of genius, a masterpiece. You prize your friends’ opinions so you go on and you watch it, and it’s an absolute disappointment (or luckily, you simply agree). But, what has happened?

Aside the fact that an average individual might be satified by anything the system spoon-feeds them, the machinations these sort of streaming services produce are quite worrying. By alluding to their products ever so often, ever so subtly, not only we lose our true sense of free will, of allowing ourselves to choose what to consciously watch, which information to take in, but we also authorise a third part to tell us what we want to consume, and how. In fact, it doesn’t sound much far from a conventional television broadcast, does it.

Society already lacks a true sense of critical thought, so, removing one’s power of choice seems to be the final straw towards a life of lethargic, poorly-made “decisions”. Granted, you can still choose from a myriad of provided material, but how many of us do it? How many of us simply accept what is trending, in the spotlight? Moreover, is it truly a choice to choose from a catalogue containing 371 Netflix originals (as of 2019) and only 50 titles produced before the 1990s (as of August 2020)?

It seems that not too far from now, we will be facing the definite shaping of our thoughts and personal choices, say, electoral ones, based on what has been permitted for us to choose from and watch during our free time. (Pop) Culture has always been an element to help us define who we are and also how we want to be, as much as it has also been a standardisation/assimilationist tool, “this is how we should now look like and behave”. Stranger things, stranger times are coming. Choose your own adventure, really.