When my freshman year English class was reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm, I heard one girl turn to her neighbor and say “no, no, bro, it’s about, like, Veganism. Like, the animals don’t wanna be eaten but then they find out it’s worse without the farmer”, I kept waiting for the punchline to what I was sure was a joke but her neighbor just nodded and jotted it down. That same week I was speaking to another student about my love for Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, he said “man, I love that Movie”, five minutes later he told me about his intentions for the football game that week—“I’m gonna whip those f*gg*ts like Tyler Durden”, safe to say I was dumbfounded. This is the trend that I fear is on the rise—this is not my attempt to say that people who don’t pick up on messaging in the media are stupid, this is my attempt to analyze the way in which social media, politics, and consumerism is killing media literacy.

With Gen-z has come the rise of short form content such a TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and reels; this content is manufacturing short attention spans in young people, it’s designed to grab hold of our minds and never let go—I do recognize that this is the pot calling the kettle black given that I consume plenty of brain rot myself. But this kills media literacy abilities, suddenly all our content is quick, digestible, and to the point—often people form their opinions on a piece of media based on the interpretation they hear about online. This is how misinterpretation spreads like wildfire: teenagers are suddenly less capable of analyzing complex media and this is compounded by TikToks, Shorts, and reels which promote interpretations that are entirely contradictory to the intentions of the author, writer, director—when I searched Squid Game on TikTok recently, the first result was a video with an AI voice explaining how the show was about how greedy and ruthless homeless people are, with thousands of comments in agreement; I don’t know how much more media illiterate you can get than letting an AI convince you that a show about the evils of the ultra-rich (source: the creator) is actually about the savagery of the impoverished. And this form of willful ignorance is seemingly everywhere—if you’d like a more relevant example then I raise you the grown man who had “Leviticus 19:18” in his bio and proceeded to tell me to end my life because of my profile picture, I don’t know how one could interpret “love thy neighbor” to condone such a thing but I digress. This is what the algorithm wants, not for you to think critically but for you to think quickly: scroll, scroll, scroll, don’t bother to fact check, don’t stop to think, scroll, scroll, put more money in the pockets of social media platforms, scroll. This form of media illiteracy also spreads into social media itself, suddenly we’re debating whether an influencer is problematic for promoting shapewear, and at the same time, other influencers keep their supporters after spewing hate and physically assaulting people; but that’s the point: stay angry, reeled in by the drama, stay glued to your screen, keyboard warrior away about how this celebrity did this harm and that, and forget about the people truly suffering around the world; this is the true danger of scrolling mindlessly. It’s easy to pretend that you care about social issues as long as it means you don’t actually have to do any real self reflection. We are becoming overly sensitive and yet somehow, also, far less empathetic—suddenly your interpretation of the media you consume is tied more to virtue signaling than to understanding the peice or even taking any real meaning from it. This is why we are seeing a sort of stagnation of social process in some areas. Suddenly people find it easier to simply feign indignation online, while staying silent in real life.

It’s also worth acknowledging how often this ignorance is willful, many people simply like their interpretations more—while it’s perfectly fine to take away a non-traditional interpretation of a piece of media, insisting that your personal interpretation is the correct interpretation or that others are foolish for not seeing it is dense at best. Yet, people are increasingly engaging with media in this fashion, this is killing the satire genre; Breaking Bad’s Walter White was intended to be a critique of pride but instead many fans idealized him and insisted that he is the misunderstood protagonist to be defended, The Joker was intended to be a villain but has instead been co-opted by incel communities as an icon, American Psycho was intended to be a critique of brutality but has instead become toted to justify the very actions which it was created to criticize. It’s not that these people are incapable of understanding that their interpretation is counterintuitive, it’s that they simply prefer their own interpretation better and therefore choose to put themselves into a sort of echo chamber. This can also be because they project themselves onto the story and therefore enforce the interpretation that favors the character they most relate to—the “main character syndrome” style of media interpretation; or this can simply be a way to counterculture—treating unpopular opinions about media as a personality trait.

Since I began this article with an example from school, it feels only fitting to address the role of the school system in this declining media literacy. This largely has to do with the way teens are taught to consume media at school—when students are handed a copy of say, Animal Farm, rather than thinking “what is this book about?”, they often only wonder “what parts will be on the test?”. This encourages a rather transactional mindset towards media—media receives: being consumed, student receives: passing grades. This is why classic media in particular is so unappreciated by teens nowadays, they’ve been conditioned to view these pieces of media as a means to an end, rather than a commentary on society. In this way, the blame falls on the school system en masse, with so much emphasis on tests, and grades, and correct answers, students forget that the media they consume in class can be anything other than just another assignment.

There are many consequences of this modern lack of media literacy; for example, the decline of the satire genre. Satire uses irony and humor to critique societal issues, often targeting those in power. Now, I can’t speak for everyone, but in my opinion, good satire does two things well: it punches up rather than kicking down, critiquing corrupt power rather than marginalized groups, and it allows for subtlety and interpretation. Modern satire, particularly on social media, has abandoned these principles. Some of the most well received satire today has veered in a direction that I don’t think I’m alone in disliking, centering on punching down—“POV: the weird kid tries to sit with at lunch”, “POV: those overtop anime fans at every convention”, etc., this not only creates satire that doesn’t criticize any bigger issue, it also is often harmful. Spend enough time watching this newer satire and you’ll notice that there’s often two main themes: these creators really don’t like neurodivergent people, and these creators really don’t like women. If you don’t consume much social media, let me explain, much of this newer satire centers around bullying people for behaviors that are just symptoms of neurodivergence, or for bullying women by portraying them as “too emotional” or as “conniving and manipulative”, this is both harmful and also misses the point of satire as a genre. In the past, satire has been used as a political tool to criticize unjust laws or corrupt figures, now we’ve turned the lense inward, and in this attempt to make satire content more digestible, we are completely forgetting that satire without purpose completely negates the point of the genre. Satire thrives on nuance, but in the age of TikTok and Twitter, subtlety doesn’t go viral. Instead, satire now comes with a title that spells out exactly what it’s criticizing, creators paint one character as blatantly evil or obnoxious while another is clearly the “good guy.” There’s little room for interpretation—just quick, digestible content that flattens satire into simple lessons which ultimately boil down to conformity. This is, in part, a result of undeveloped media literacy, both in the sense that many creators lack the media literacy to allow for daring topics and subtly, and also that their audience has the same ailment and, so, if they want their content to succeed they keep it safe and simple. Would it be tone deaf of me to say that much modern satire is on tier with Cocomelon in comparison to its predecessors?

Have you ever listened to a creator criticize consumerism, and then try to sell you on some sort of crypto pump and dump, or their new merch that was made in a sweatshop? Everyone is selling something! It’s difficult to analyze media when it’s all especially made and packaged to keep you buying, buying, buying. It’s hard for creators to make good satire when they’re far more worried about keeping advertisers and sponsors happy—“yeah, watch this skit about how sexism is bad and don’t forget to use my coupon code when checking out with my sponsor whose CEO has a history of mistreating women!”

Perhaps I should specify that I don’t believe all modern satire is bad, more so that it’s the oversimplified, oversaturated satire that seems to do the best. That seems to be the real tragedy of this widespread media illiteracy: so many good creators go entirely unappreciated; this is compounded by successful creators who feel forced to keep making the same content—same basic formula—if they want to maintain their success and livelihood. And this sucks from a viewer standpoint as well; suddenly all the most popular skits are the same script repackaged, there’s less content that allows for analyzation—less content to exercise your brain, subjects that may have otherwise been interesting seem to bore most the class, when you do find an innovative creator they go unrecognized.

I guess I’m supposed to give this article a hopeful conclusion—I’m bad at hopefulness, but I’d say the best solution to media illiteracy is just critical thinking. Seriously consider the meaning of the media you consume and don’t let other people and social media mislead you; do your research on claims you hear online and come to your own conclusion. Support creators who make good content and think critically about the content you consume and the companies that you buy from. Believe it or not, your brain is your most important tool, don’t forget how to use it.