When tracking our every move becomes a form of social bonding, we forget to meaningfully engage with what we consume.
To fully experience any form of media, it’s essential to engage with it for yourself.
Lately, authentic consumption of media has become a struggle—especially with the rise of social cataloguing platforms.
Letterboxd, a social media platform that allows s to catalogue their watched films, post reviews, and curate personal profiles, has grown immensely in popularity over the past few years. It’s nearly impossible to avoid their team’s viral videos interviewing stars like Emma Stone to ask about their top four films—a critical component of a ’s profile on the site.
I’ve spent countless hours on the app adding every film I can watching, from ages five and up, and crafting quippy reviews—if I can think of something funny enough. The thrill of getting a like from a random cements the experience—you feel validated in your taste and your humour.
But after years of engaging with these platforms, I’ve realized cataloguing every form of media you consume is, frankly, exhausting.
Engagement becomes a performance. You start seeking out films regarded by others as niche or subversive classics, add them to your profile, and wait for friends, peers, or random s to marvel at your excellent taste. Your media consumption becomes a glass box for the world to see and use to build their perception of you.
This hyperawareness of public perception drives the desire to watch films and leave inflated reviews, even if you didn’t necessarily enjoy them. It’s cool, it’s considered a masterpiece, so you place it in your top four to create the persona of someone well-versed in cinema.
This mental burden carries over to other platforms like Goodreads, a website for tracking and rating books, and Last.fm, which s every song you listen to onto your profile—a habit I had to give up after nearly three years of daily use.
As entertaining as it was to scroll through my friends’ listening histories, I became obsessed with how my own profile looked. I found myself picking and choosing songs just to maintain a carefully curated image rather than genuinely enjoying what I wanted to listen to.
When we selectively consume media based on how others will perceive us, we lose the opportunity to engage with a diverse range of perspectives and to appreciate the value of what we consume. Instead, we focus on aesthetics, letting critical thinking and personal reflection on the piece—and our own tastes—fall by the wayside.
Validation will always be a driving force for people. As we move deeper into a world where social media is so entrenched in how we form and maintain connections with others, it’s extremely easy to play into an inauthentic display of who we are.
To truly engage with art and media, rather than mindlessly cataloguing it for others’ approval, the Letterboxd era must .
Aya Alhasany is a first-year Health Sciences student and one of The Journal’s Assistant News Editors.
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