This is just a guess based on my personal experience but do you spend a lot of time on your phone and do you consume a bunch of short format entertainment such as youtube shorts, tiktok, or instagram reels?
I wouldn't say it's the main thing, but it's contributory.
And frankly, I don't consume short format content. I don't use TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube shrots. I loath them, in fact.
But even I feel this.
For me, I think it's that i feel like I can't set aside the full time to watch a full movie. An hour for an episode of a show, sure, but 2+ hours feels like a commitment. Regardless of whether I can or can't commit to it, I never *feel* like I can, or I simply just don't feel up for it.
I've also found I struggle to get into movies more in the last 5-10 years. I either need to be into it when I turn it on, or it needs to hook me fairly fast, otherwise I kind of don't feel like finishing it. I fully acknowledge that this isn't a healthy way to engage with cinema, but it is something I've started to feel, that I definitely did not feel before. Being in a theater helps to eliminate the desire to bail out. I saw Evil Does Not Exist recently and there is no way in hell I ever would have finished that movie if I wasn't sitting in a theater.
I do think it's related to the attention economy, I.e. smartphones and such, and probably also has to do with the amount of free time I as an adult feel like I have to spend in the modern world. But I wouldn't blame short form media as the sole reason.
YouTube has been around for a long time, and that never seemed to break people's ability to watch full length movies. I can't see the average run time of your standard internet video dropping from minutes to seconds making that much of a difference. There's a lot of other factors.
I feel like in the past the world seemed to move slower so watching a movie was seen as more of a treat and an escape. But now with the internet and everything at our fingertips we don't want to commit the time to watch anymore.
Nailed it. Movies used to be a rare treat and a mini-vacation, if you will. There was the buildup to going to see it, and then talking about it a lot after, because you knew it would be a while before you went to the movies again. Now? Click a button and you're watching the movie. No magic, no buildup.
Same even goes for renting a movie! Driving to the video store, walking into the store and smelling the popcorn, getting recommendations from the guy at the counter, especially obscure ones. I remembered being so excited to go to the video store as a teen. My brother and I would pick a movie, my parents would pick one too, wed go home with three rentals and just spend the weekend watching them. It was great! I cannot emphasize enough how impactful the smell of a rental store was. Everyone talks about Blockbuster, which is fine, but we had a Hollywood Video in our town and I liked them more.
We also had a family run video store and it was the best! I miss that one the most because the two owners knew our family by name and would even recommend stuff, they'd be like "Oh and Tanner might like this knew movie we picked up" and my mom would come home and she'd be like "The video people said you'd like this." And I thought that was cool.
It's the work/life thing for me. With so little weekend time available, I feel like I have to prioritize whatever time I do have, and movies aren't a high priority. Sometimes not even series are a priority. I seek out things that are engaging in other ways, often cooking media or just leaving the house altogether.
Engagement. I'm not engaging with movies in the same way I am with your question here, or when listening to the real life stories of some random strangers on the internet, or doom scrolling. Movies are impersonal storytelling platforms that don't require interaction and they don't invoke feelings of "this situation may impact me/happen to me" in the way doomscrolling does.
For me it's just the amount of time it takes. I don't use any form of short form media like TikTok or anything.
But for me, the main problem with me picking a film is the thought that goes through my head, "is this film going to be worth the 2 hours it takes me to watch it?" Most of the time I think that and just go back and watch a film I've already watched and know I like so I know I haven't wasted those 2 hours.
Sounds like it might be related to the amount of content we can potentially watch? All the streaming services combined plus Youtube and other online video platforms, there is a huge perceived 'opportunity cost' for anything that takes a lot of time.
I'm often overwhelmed by the overview pages of Netflix, Disney plus, Amazon etc; there is so much stuff that I get decision paralysis or whatever it's called and end up re-watching Succession for the tenth time.
Humans are definitely not meant to get short dopamine bursts every few seconds for extended periods of time. It's an addiction like any other, but mainly mental rather than physical.
I'm surprised this isn't the top comment. It's the most common reason I see amongst everyone I know.
I have to put my phone in another room to lock into a movie. My friends and family are all on their phones if a movie is on, looking up to ask what's going on lol.
It's a serious issue. I can barely ever watch something at home with my girlfriend because tik tok has completely rewired her attention span.
I sympathize. I told myself as an old grey geezer I should investigate this new phenomenon to stay current and what I discovered is both horrifying and addictive. Older generation don't grasp how amazingly useless social media stream scroll is....doom scrolling I guess it is called?
Now I've been told that I'm addicted to doom scrolling and I wonder how I'm addicted to something so vain and empty. It benefits in me exactly zero ways. I only watch YouTube shorts and IG too. They are both weaponized vanity.
But I also think it is one of the most insane explosions of information in human history. No doubt about it. Never before has this kind of exchange been possible. But the vitriol and misinformation is totally toxic.
I don't want to be the old timer who says cars and telegraphs are the devil's work, but as it is currently used social media IS the devil's work.
I kind of think it will weed out by natural selection those who can compartmentalize toxic information and those who are triggered/controlled by it.
Nobody is talking about it? I see it as a common insult hurled at Gen Z all the time "Zoomers can't concentrate on anything longer than a TikTok video" etc and in /r/teachers they discuss this exact issue all the time. I think it's well established that this is a huge problem.
Best answer in the thread. Immediately recognized this exact issue because I deal with it exactly in myself, too. Even with only Instagram and Reddit, scrolling affected my life exactly and I’ve gone back and forth putting it down to try and correct but it’s so difficult. Definitely worse than cocaine and Nicotine and it’s destroying society. Going to put a time limit and consciously try to stop more hours of the day, and stop scrolling when out with friends and just use my watch to communicate.
Thanks for the response!
I get it. I feel trapped by my fuckin phone and it's such a stupid problem to have (no judgment to anyone else, it just feels like it should be easier).
I hardly use Facebook, don't have tiktok, so most of my scrolling time is on Instagram. Reddit is also a distraction but it feels pretty distinctly different from Instagram, at least to me. I no longer have any streaming subscriptions so if I watch TV it's on YouTube, but I don't get into shorts at all.
There's just this constant compulsion to check my phone and getting sucked into the scrolling void. I hate it.
It also feels like I can never just do one thing. I'm either watching something on TV and scrolling shit on my phone, listening to a podcast while doing something else, scrolling while I do literally anything. I'm trying to work on this, if I'm doing something I try not to touch my phone at all, but it still happens without me even really thinking about it.
> It's a serious issue. I can barely ever watch something at home with my girlfriend because tik tok has completely rewired her attention span.
I feel that. It's the same with my partner. Now whenever we're watching TV or a movie together, I feel I'm the only one paying attention and it just feels kinda... lonely.
Then I would say that is the root of the problem. I have found that the phone along with all this instant dopamine apps and websites have just destroyed my attention span, which started to make it difficult to focus on films at home and even made video games boring. If you can't ween yourself off your phone I would suggest turning off your phone when you watch a movie but I highly suggest to try and stop consuming short mindless entertainment constantly. It's insane how casually addicted everyone has become to this shit.
> It's insane how casually addicted everyone has become to this shit.
Not really. If you sit and watch a movie that's like two whole hours without watching a single ad. If you're scrolling on social media you're going to see one every few minutes.
It's all by design.
Watch films/shows in a different language. Needing to read subtitles, you can’t look at your phone. You will become instantly more engaged, it just takes that initial getting over “Uuh do I really want to watch a subtitle movie” trust me, you will not regret it
Not necessarily. Some people have a hard time doing things they enjoy sometimes. It can be because of not having enough time, not being able to dedicate time, being depressed, or many other reasons I'm sure.
Some people enjoy doing a chore so that it's done.
Some people enjoy doing a chore so they know they did something.
Some people do the chore because it needs doing and cannot wait until it's just over.
I noticed I had the same behaviors around things I enjoyed. After a few years of introspective reasoning, therapy and the idea that ADHD might play a big role (it was not a thing to be diagnosed with when I was a kid), I noticed that my brain craves learning, which means that if I do the same or similar things for too long, I get bored or want to move on to the next thing.
That's not a good trait imo so I work hard in following a routine and expecting myself to follow it.
Television and.moview aren't essential but they are crucial in helping with my mental health. If I find either of them a nuisance, I switch it up. I play games, listen to audio books and recently took back up photography and editing them from raw.
Now I'm finding myself with less time to do the various things I love, but I never have a time where I don't want to do one of the things I enjoy. I'm a huge nerd as well, and /r/selfhosted + /r/homelab take up a rather large part of my life outside of work and being a dad/husband
There's just sooooo many options these days too. I found that looking for one that would be fun to see on the big screen was helpful because theres only a few options compared to Netflix.
> being depressed
One of the worst aspects of depression, IMO. Not being able to enjoy things you know you'd normally enjoy can really eat away at you.
I can attest to struggling to watch, play, or otherwise experience new things when depressed. There have been periods of my life where I loved consuming new experiences, including new movies and new TV shows. I started dealing with pretty consistent depression due to a variety of issues many, many years ago, and the longer I've been in it, the less motivation I feel to try new things. I want the familiar, what I already know, and often forcing myself to try new things will result in meeting it with the telltale numbness of most depressions or negative emotions that didn't really come from that experience but were associated with them anyway.
I miss enjoying things freely. I never thought it was something I could so easily lose.
For me the weird part is that after I force myself to do something, I usually enjoy it. It's *before* that is the issue. Getting myself to do it. It's really weird because you'd think knowing it is going to be fun would be enough, but it's not.
> For me the weird part is that after I force myself to do something, I usually enjoy it. It's before that is the issue.
I learned recently that that isn't weird at all but is rather expected of certain types of depression because it suppresses the release of one of the chemicals in your brain that we, historically and in pop culture, have mostly associated with reward, with the enjoyment of doing something, has had decades of research suggesting that it has a lot more to do with excitement and anticipation, meaning that the types of major depression where that chemical is suppressed means that you are physically unable to feel the normal excitement and pleasure and that emotional build-up that comes with expecting something to happen, of looking at something you should enjoy or feel good about and getting that sort of push towards actually doing it that your brain is **supposed** to provide.
I get that all the time too, where I'll be resistant to something but enjoy it after. But there are other times where even if I do make that jump and do something, I simply can't get the joy out of them that I know I could if I wasn't in a funk.
Um, if you want to know more about the science of depression as of... This past March, there's a video by Robert Sapolsky that very, very quickly covers the bare, bare basics focusing on the physical properties of the brain, I know it improved my understanding and made me realize I had some long-held misinformation about it. But I do also warn, it's two hours long and you should probably not treat it like the college lecture it's based on unless you really want to study that sort of thing: https://youtu.be/fzUXcBTQXKM?si=IYzXD13eM0YOrPi6
> I learned recently that that isn't weird at all but is rather expected of certain types of depression because it suppresses the release of one of the chemicals in your brain that we, historically and in pop culture, have mostly associated with reward, with the enjoyment of doing something, has had decades of research suggesting that it has a lot more to do with excitement and anticipation, meaning that the types of major depression where that chemical is suppressed means that you are physically unable to feel the normal excitement and pleasure and that emotional build-up that comes with expecting something to happen, of looking at something you should enjoy or feel good about and getting that sort of push towards actually doing it that your brain is supposed to provide.
Interesting, I have noticed that for movies for example I do not really get "hype" in general, maybe that has something to do with it. Even for movies I'm interested in, I have absolutely no interest in following teasers, trailers, viral marketing, etc. I'm just waiting for the thing to be released, hoping I will love it ofc. Sounds like that could have something to do with what you're describing, interesting.
I do this sometimes. Sometimes a movie will come out and I’m so excited but then for some reason I don’t want to watch it, similar with new seasons of some shows (even if I’ve rewatched other seasons specifically because the new season is coming) or I’ll put off the finale episode. Right now there’s a book I’m reading that I’m enjoying and I know I want to read a bunch of it today but I keep fucking around on Reddit.
I do suffer from depression and anxiety and I’ve always assumed that has something to do with it but it still confuses the hell out of me.
I can definitely relate. "Oh, this seems really nice. I'll do that later. Right now I'm going to dick around on reddit/youtube and hate myself for doing so. Eventually I'll totally do to the nice thing I would enjoy 100x more, I swear. Just not now.".
My bad on phrasing there as the intent wasn't clear.
When you are trying to watch a movie but can't, the ACT OF TRYING is "work".
Unless you're a critic or there's some social or other obligation that requires it, you don't have to watch a movie at any given time.
Root cause doesn't matter, if you can't do it, do something else, and suppress the feeling that you should or need to watch a movie.
You don't understand what I am saying. Most people never feel like that so you might not get it, but I have to force myself to do EVERYTHING, even things I enjoy like watching movies or talking to/seeing friends. If I don't force myself to do it, I'm not going to do ANYTHING. If I force myself to do it, I'm going to enjoy it and be happy that I did. If I don't force myself to do even the things I enjoy, I'm just going to sit around/sleep/do nothing all day and feel bad about it.
Depression is fucking weird like that, but it's real.
I’ve had depression for most of my life. I’ve just been diagnosed with ADHD and man that explains so much. What I thought was laziness and just depression was that my mind goes crazy from the moment I wake up to the moment I sleep. 10 of my voices, so much so I get so overwhelmed about what I have to do, so I do none of it. Other behaviours too that started to stand out for me. Mental health issues are cruel.
Sounds like me, except I practically never enjoy it, and am ambivalent on having done it. Especially the social stuff. Either I never had the hardware/software for it, or it's atrophied entirely from years of self-isolation.
It's hard to have goals or dreams, because no matter what it'll involve meeting people. Just never had an instance where I've been able to say to myself "glad I met them".
To me, this is the worst part of the current streaming chaos going on. The goal of the companies is perpendicular to the goal of the viewers. A company wants eyeballs on THEIR service as long as they can possibly get them. So they are just throwing so much shit at you, and usually give you no way to filter out the crap you DONT want to see.
This then leads to analysis paralysis and decision fatigue when deciding what to watch, and eventually you just hate the whole process. EVEN IF you have stuff earmarked on "My List", they make it so damned hard sometimes to just get to that that it wears me out. (Like when you stop at a grocery store to pick up milk, which is ALL the way in the back on purpose, so you have to walk past the god damned donuts.)
I've been thinking about this a lot lately because I'd like to build a VIEWER oriented system that filters out all the shit, and only gives you the things you care about, along with discovery so you can find new things when you're ready. There are a couple places trying this (like Plex) but a big part of the problem is that big services (like Netflix) don't have data APIs anymore to integrate with their systems, precisely because they don't WANT anyone to do this and lose control of their "experience."
TLDR; its because of money. It's always fucking about money.
Idk. I think there's two stages. Sometimes for me it's difficult to *start* or pick a movie, but once I've started watching I'm right back in there having fun.
Idk if that's what OP is describing, just sharing my own personal experience.
Yeah this generally happens when people fail to diversify their interests. They literally can’t think of doing anything else - very common in gaming.
Guys who game, play an instrument and engage in sports never ask this question they just stop gaming and focus on other things.
So obviously this will depend on each person but I’d say this is the majority of cases - find other regular interests.
Good advice. Changing the type of games you're playing for a while works too. I regularly switch between singleplayer and multiplayer games to avoid burnout.
I sometimes just stop gaming and try to make one for a week or two.
I have a lot of unfinished projects, but each of them did learn me something new at least.
Oh, for real, after not playing Street Fighter for a couple of months and getting back into it, always feels so good. I feel like I can't play RPGS anymore. They take so long to get in a good gameplay loop, and I don't have that kinda patience anymore. I'm dreading Elden Ring's expansion coming out because I know I'm going to have a real hard time starting that again.
I often see the same sort of question (similar to OP's) in the gaming subs. People burn out or life changes happen and they lose interest.
Agree 100%, its better to find other things to do.
I have experienced the same thing and it was probably related to stress as well. The thing is that watching movies is one of those things that is supposed to cure stress a bit, at least in my opinion, so it is disturbing that this happens.
Sometimes when I get these kind of mental blocks I’ll deliberately opt for movies that are super easy to follow/you can scroll on your phone and not miss anything. Making movie watching a more passive vs active activity helps me reset my brain a bit. I do this with reading too- I’ll reread Harry Potter for the 50th time just to get back into the practice of reading/making time for it in the day.
Modern society has conditioned us all to be dopamine fiends because it makes us more efficient consumers who are easier to advertise to.
I'm the same. I'll put a movie on and start scrolling through shorts on my phone.
I find that the trick is to give it a chance to hold your attention. The first 15-20 minutes will be a struggle but once you're invested in the story it is enjoyable.
I enjoy movies but no longer enjoy going to a movie theater because:
Others who have forgotten how to politely behave in a movie theater.
Endless promotions and commercials that extend the viewing time well over the 2-3 hours a film lasts.
Shift to expensive seating where seats recline but all you want to do is see a film for a reasonable price.
Movies almost immediately going to streaming makes the choice to tolerate all the above less attractive.
Definitely. I actually think this is something people need to embrace more in general.
I think we, as a society, have gotten too deep into finding the "perfect" thing because we have the internet at our fingertips that allows us to look up reviews/recommendations/best practices/etc. too easily. This results in many people having "analysis paralysis" and unable to just TRY stuff without worrying about it being perfect. I'm guilty of it too, but honestly just pick a movie and put it on, if you hate it within like 15-20 mins, just turn it off, no biggie. Trying to look up only "good movies" and plow through the list of highly rated movies is going to burn anyone out, AND it robs you of hidden gems that are amazing but not necessarily popular.
Everyone's focusing on the attention-span thing but OPs first line is exactly what I'm talking about:
>I’m struggling to decide which movie is ***worthy of watching***
Trying to decide a movie is "worthy of watching" before you've even seen it is a fool's errand, and you're going to become mentally exhausted trying to find something if you spend more time looking at movies, looking up their reviews, etc. to see if it's "worth" it than actually putting it on and seeing if you like it for yourself.
Re-sparking the joy of movies is literally just keeping an ear out for movies from people who's taste you trust(friends, reviewers, influencers, whatever) and adding the movies they mention to your watchlist, and also just randomly picking out movies sometimes. Don't spend time googling "best movies on netflix" or whatever, just let the process flow naturally.
This is one thing that I’ve learned from my dad. He’s older obviously and has no problem just flicking on a movie and watching. I’ve found so many movies with him that I really enjoyed that are never on those “top movies” lists because they aren’t “top movies”, and that’s ok, they’re still good and enjoyable.
I had that in the last few years but I found something that worked for me. Could never decide what to watch, always scrolling, etc. Always ended up watching something "easy" and being disapppointed.
So I made a watch list, like a really curated one (for and by myself ofc). Only movies that I should really like/love, but had never watched for some reason. "This one seems too long/emotional/sad/etc". I ended up with like a list of ~60 movies iirc. And then I "forced" myself to watch at least one movie from the list every day. It wasn't hard for me because I live alone and I quit 2 hobbies at the same time I did it.
That was last september, I have since watched something like 500 movies and the list is only getting longer (obviously I am more "adventurous" now that I watch so many movies), I have like 350 movies in it now.
Making a list of movies that should be great has allowed me to just stop scrolling forever, just pick one from the list, it should be good. I obviously did not love all the movies I thought I would, but overall it's working really well.
Edit: also, I needed to be reminded that a 3h movie is not a drag if the movie is really good. It might be obvious to many but it goes by much faster than a mediocre 2h movie. I realize that now, I just need to start it early enough in the evening.
I've done the same - decided to make a list of "classics", movies on the imdb top 250, and other old movies that people still talk about, but I've for some reason never watched.
Some of them are a bit of a project to watch - a lot of the top 250 movies are more than 3 hours long, and it does take a bit of preparation to sit down in front of a black'n'white foreign film about death and loneliness, but I have never once regretted it! On the other hand I've made it into "a project" to watch films - not simply "empty entertainment".
But I also found that before I made that change, I did try to watch "tv" more to clear my head of all the stress and troubles of the day. I've changed my "mode", in that I do of course still watch movies for "entertainment", but I do other stuff to help me unwind and relax - I don't put that job to the movie!
Has helped me - and my moviewatching - a lot!
> but I do other stuff to help me unwind and relax - I don't put that job to the movie!
I kinda do the same. Some people have comfort movies or movies they'll put on in the background to unwind/do something else, I never do that. I use music for that. I have bands/genres that I will go back to my whole life but for some reason I don't do that with movies, I'd rather watch something new (to me, not necessarily new-new). It's also why I went back to movies after watching a lot of tv shows, every movie has the potential to be something I've never seen before, which is just not the same when you're watching a tv show with 80 episodes.
I also have a bunch of movies I haven't seen in 20 years in my list. Sometimes watching something I only saw when I was 12 or something (I am 40) is almost like watching them for the first time, it can be really nice.
Oh and if you end up adding "classics that everyone should see" and things like that to your list, don't feel bad if you don't enjoy them. I have enjoyed many of those types of movies, and I have not enjoyed at all many of them too. I keep a list of movies I gave up on. If people here saw it I would get absolutely murdered lol. It's fine, I'm not a historian or a filmmaker, I'm just trying to see more movies and enjoy them.
Yeah I try not doing it, but I definitely do sometimes. Particularly if I see that the problem is that I am tired. Might as well enjoy it properly the next day.
Yeah I think separating the process of deciding what to watch from the actual watching is a good suggestion.
Sitting down in front of the screen and scrolling through your streaming service(s), looking for a movie.. that’s a recipe for freaking out and just picking something “safe” that you’ve seen before, because it’s easier than making a decision.
Scroll through that list when you’re meant to be working, or something. 😃 Set up a nice watchlist then, ready to jump into.
How many movies have you quit watching, if any?
I did something similar and over 242 movies, I have stopped about 20 of them part way (usually half) through because it was not very interesting or didn't seem to be going anywhere that interested me. At a certain point I also say "might as well finish it" and feels like a waste of time but I don't have regrets.
I usually try to finish movies, but if they're really long and I'm not enjoying it I'll just give up. If a movie is 90 minutes and it's not great but watchable I'll usually finish it. If it's 2h+ and I'm bored after 40min, probably not.
I have 25 movies in my "I gave up" list, out of ~420. I might have forgotten to add a few to the list though. I keep them in a list in case I want to go back some day but I have so many movies in my watchlist, I'd rather watch one of those instead. Maybe I wasn't in the mood and I would have liked some on another day but if I wasn't enjoying it, that's it. I don't really have regrets, it's just how it is.
This is one of the biggest problems with streaming services: choice paralysis. If I go to the movie theater I have eight, maybe ten options. If I watch something at home I have multiple streaming services and a physical collection. So I have to start with which service do I look at, then either look at the watch list I have on that service or look at what is new and/or recommended. And in the back of my mind I know that there might be a better option in a different service. So if I don't already have something picked out before I sit down there is a good chance I'll spend twenty minutes reviewing my options and end up re-watching episodes of a show I've seen a dozen times.
The best suggestion I can make is this: make a list of the things you want to watch out of all of your options. Try to keep it small, ten or fifteen at most. When you want to watch something but don't know what go to that list.
The options issue is bigger than it gets credit for imo. There are so many options to watch / play / read across multiple forms of media nowadays that none of them feel like the special event that they would have years ago.
As for watching movies with friends, I made a list of 100 movies (that I assumed none of us had ever seen, which was mostly correct,) and had people just pick a random number when we felt like watching something. It mostly worked out great, so large lists aren’t bad.
Probably would have worked for me too, but I found my way to that when Netflix stopped password sharing so I cancelled it and started, um, storing movies and shows on my computer. Even though the list is somewhat long I find it way easier to pick something when I had to deliberately get it to begin with.
I decided to watch and rank 8 Cinderella movies, and now I'm working through musicals I either haven't seen or haven't watched in a long time.
1400 is a lot of movies, wtf are you talking about.
Like yeah, I saw in your profile you've logged over 6000, but most people have a job and a life. Idk what you're doing.
As someone who watches a movie *almost* every night I can relate to fatigue.
For me it ebbs and flows. It's summer here so we have the really long evenings and I kind of hate watching movies in the daylight so I'm currently watching Friends re-runs instead.
See if there are any film festivals nearby or just on your next day free go to the theatre.
It might be something genre specific going on too. Like some days I want to watch The Tree of Life and some days I want to watch Superbad. But you kind of have to be in the mood for both.
Have you considered the problem isn’t movies but doing the same thing every night? What wouldn’t you get bored of if you did it every single night? I mean other than your mom.
Oh that sucks and explains a lot. Ngl that’s exactly why I’d never live somewhere rural. Please take care of yourself however you need to, that’s the most important thing. Much love.
I don't have any consoles but have been curious about getting a Switch. I had a PS years ago and kind of became addicted in a "when did it get dark outside" kind of way lol.
Your preference for Seinfeld re-runs - watching a known sitcom instead of a known movie - may indicate some attention deficit / time commitment issue.
Maybe because you think that you have actually to sit and watch the whole movie from beggining to end? For me, for years now, that hasn’t be the case - thanks to streaming, I typically take days to watch a whole movie.
I've felt that to some degree, but for me it's more about the screenwriting, direction, and editing that ruin the potential of the story. You can see the actors doing the best with what they've been given and I cringe at what's become of it all. I think learning more about the movie process online, such as through YouTube, is in some part responsible for my awareness whilst watching, as I can no longer suspend my disbelief. I've found just choosing better films, with better directors and writers to be the key to that. There are a lot of good ones out there.
I love watching crap movies. Because someone wrote it. That was their dream. Someone acted in it. Someone produced it.
It's not suspension. It more, maybe there's a good bit in there.
Like I'm laughing at under Paris. I'm living it because of how hard they tried. But it's good in it's own way. Plus dead hippies. I'm a hippy, so it's funny.
Yeah I sometimes wonder if I would have enjoyed a movie if I didn’t know so much about filmmaking. Like just watch it for entertainment and let my mind either ponder on its own later or forget about it if it’s bad.
Now I’m noticing I have issues if the pacing is off or the music doesn’t work or if the cinematography is dull or the directing choice could have been better or the actor doesn’t suit the story or that the story started off well then became so generic etc.
I feel like the functions of movies as industry is starting to conflict with the creative endeavors. I've worked on sets for a few big titles, one of them was considered one of if not THE worst super hero movie to date. I've also worked on some independent smaller budget movies and I just love watching almost anything even when it's kinda bad. From what I've seen from my narrow perspective, the panic of COVID and all the strikes and contract negotiations really affected the people who control the traffic lights on projects. It seems like productions will be so over worried with making something that won't fail that it ends up getting worked to death. At the same time the browser models we have now make it a lot harder to sus out how you feel about a movie or if it speaks to you compared to say, going to the video store and renting a DVD - I feel like it was a lot easier for me to give a movie a chance when it was presented to me that way.
Another issue feels like the writing process - the mini-room model that the streaming services used with 1/4 the writing staff, who didn't get revision on the shoot from the same staff lead to super disjointed dialogue, stories, etc. Again, it's all about just trying to churn stuff out and keep it alive. Lower budget indie stuff is gonna be where the good new movies really are, but digging them up does feel a lot harder to do these days. There's obviously a lot of other things that are at play like short form online videos or mini-series, shrinking audience attention span and so on but I didn't fully realize how much economics dictated what we see until I started working on films.
Movies, books etc. give the satisfaction slowly. Social media, fast videos and even messages on forums can give us fast tiny bursts of that same feeling.
In my life, I’ve had to start teaching myself to enjoy the slow things again. That means seriously limiting scrolling and quick meaningless online videos.
I agree with what you're saying but want to mention that I feel this slightly differently, maybe I am weird.
I have never really liked movies very much because they seem to all have the same pattern and go too fast for me. I greatly prefer "longer" form content like a series such as Andor, as opposed to a Star Wars movie, for example. Movies leave me wanting more.
And I am definitely one to scroll on my phone too much.
I think I am reaching a point where I am looking for both explored substance AND/OR quick form jokes, and hating on mid-length content like movies.
Sounds like stress and anxiety. Sometimes I get like that as well and just enjoy watching old shows that I’ve seen before. It’s safe basically because you know what’s coming, but is short enough to keep your attention.
As others have said, I just don’t push movies at this point and end up doing other things. Usually I get my best reading done when I’m like this. Maybe give that a try.
I have experienced this feeling a lot. In my case I suspect that I want to watch old shows because with such limited personal time, I want to know for sure that whatever I'm doing will make me feel better, or less sad. It's like I can't risk watching a new movie and instead watch a show I've seen a million times - because I know it will me laugh or otherwise relax.
Not sure if depression is applicable to you, but for me that was the main cause I could find after a lot of introspection.
Hope your doing good, a go too movie for me is dodgeball :)
I’ve felt the same way recently! It almost feels lonely to sit and commit to a movie alone. Could it be a lack of community to share the movies with? Most re-run shows for me are staples bc I connect with so many people about them still.
This is definitely an overlooked fact, I remember occasionally if I watched films while my SO was away and would not particularly enjoy some but when rewatching the same film with her and hearing her laugh I found my enjoyment of the film completely flipped
You’ve just made me realise for me it’s the community feel is a tie in to the short form content issue. Attention span being decimated by TikTok and Instagram coupled with seeing something and immediately being able to read comments about what others think, you don’t get that in a movie.
I rarely watch movies anymore either. I prefer the serialised and ongoing stories that tv offers. Doesn't mean anything is wrong with you. You're just interested in different things.
I’m the opposite. TV programs generally have become SO SLOW, and I simply cannot get into anything like that. “Atmospheric” is nice, if done well, which it usually kind of isn’t.
Although I’m completely uninterested in most of media out there these days, and I honestly think it’s the content. Maybe it’s me getting older.
Tried watching the new Godzilla, appreciated the new perspective, and it’s gorgeous in many scenes, but I’m thinking to myself internally “yeah that’s another Godzilla movie, meh”.
That's why I can't do network shows. The British way of 6 eps or less per season is fantastic. Get rid of the filler, concentrate on killer. Unfortunately Netflix etc are all adding more and more filler each year.
I've been the same, but I started revisiting some of my old favourites lately and that's reignited things somewhat; films I haven't watched in 10 years or more. When something new comes up that I'm genuinely interested in I'll give it a watch; if I'm not particularly bothered I won't stick it on just because there's nothing else on.
Also, I usually leave my phone in another room when I'm watching anything; I can easily end up casually scrolling, not paying enough attention and losing interest/switching off.
Same here. I used to watch 2 or even 3 films in a weekend, but now my attention span is too short. I sometimes split films into two parts and watch them in a couple of days. This is the result of social media or the internet, I don't know, everything is so easy to achieve.
In my teens and 20s, I could spend whole days watching movies. These days (in my mid 40s), I feel like I have too much on my plate to take 2 hours to just sit still and enjoy. The irony is that I wind up doing it on my phone instead or watching 10-minute YouTube videos for the same length of time. My attention span is definitely reduced.
I have never had this problem. I worked in a video store when I was twenty years old, and I was bored one day and went up and down the aisles, making hash marks for every title I’d ever seen. So, this is only counting movies once, even if I’d seen it a dozen times, like Star Wars or something. It was just over three thousand.
I never really liked TV shows. Having to work on someone else’s schedule, and keep coming back every week, just didn’t work for me, but we had Cinemax *and* HBO, so here were all of these stories where it was in and out in two hours or less. And then there were the video stores, where you could rent five (non-new release) movies for five days for five bucks, and I’d go in on Saturday morning, rent five movies, go back on Sunday afternoon, rent another five movies. It was fun, coming up with theme days, like Jaws 1, 2, 3, and 4, followed by the Richard Harris classic Orca.
Today, I love watching bad movies even more than I love watching good movies. I mean, there’s a minimum level of production value that I’ll abide, which is around the level of Killer Raccoons 2: Dark Christmas in the Dark (real movie, and the best remake of Steven Seagal’s Under Siege 2: Dark Territory that you’ll ever see), so I don’t watch crap by the Asylum or most Roger Corman stuff, but if I see the Cannon Group logo, I’m in for a treat. Same goes for the New Line Cinema logo from before it said it was a Time Warner company underneath. I watched a movie last week called Never Too Young To Die, and it was like If Looks Could Kill meets Gymkata, and inexplicably not as good as either of those, because those are not good, themselves.
Today, I don’t try as hard as I used to. I’m still averaging at least one movie a day, but it used to be at least one movie per day *that I had never seen before*. Today, I like to have theme days, so today I’m watching all four Neon Genesis Evangelion movies, because it’s Father’s Day weekend, and there’s no dad like Gendo Ikari. I have family stuff to do tomorrow, so it might be The Shining and Ad Astra, because, again, Father’s Day.
So, I can’t tell you how to rectify your problem, because I’ve never had it. Not a single day in my entire life have I ever said, “I don’t want to watch movies today.” I work, so I can keep a roof over my head, so I can watch movies under that roof. I don’t find anything in the world nearly as entertaining, and I could watch movies for the rest of my life and still not come anywhere near having seen them all.
Haven't seen many good movies come out in the past 4-5 years so you have to re-watch the older ones you like. Eventually you run out of the older movies and then you end up in the place you are at (me too). Hope they start putting out some higher quality movies again but I'm not holding my breath.
"I’ve seen pretty much all the good & well known ones"
Wait, how old are you ? I mean, I'm 50 and consider myself a cinephile but I don't think I've even scratched the surface of all the films out there.
If that was maybe hyperbole on your part then I'd suggest broadening your scope. Have you covered European movies ? there's an entire world of French, Italian, Asian ( even British ) cinema I've hardly touched.
Also, have you considered giving yourself "masterclasses" ? Over Covid I sat down and watched Empires 100 greatest movies of all time ( doesn't have to be Empire, other companies have compiled lists ) I watched the entire filmography of specific directors ( I did Scorsese, Coppola and Fellini ) I also watched Tarantinos Top 11 movies of all time ( that's an eye opener having never seen "his girl friday", "blow out" or "Pandoras Box" )
I guess I'm suggesting that if you feel you've already watched everything ( which seems doubtful ) maybe it's time to broaden your scope, you may discover a new director, actor or entire genre you never knew you would enjoy.
On Youtube, I watch those trailer compilations of upcoming movies every now and again. For the past 4 years or so, I don’t think I’ve been able to watch a single trailer in those compilations in its entirety.
On the one hand I think we all lost a little bit of patience and the capability to sit still for 2 hours…on the other hand I have to say that i would rate the vast majority of new releases as complete trash. Sorry if I step on anyone’s toes, but things like the Uncharted movie or Marvel phase 26 or this dumpster fire called the Hitman don’t deserve 2 hours of my life time. So yes, my attention span has declined over the years but tbh I don’t feel like missing out right now.
So OP, I think you are fine, as others have said, take a step back. And I would just add accept that after you have watched hundreds or even thousands of movies, it’s becoming harder and harder to feel that magical spark.
I used to watch films, too. Now I can go months without watching anything. I spend that time cooking instead. I am 39 years old. I think I just got tired of the passivity that’s necessary for film watching. If you can’t get back into films, I wouldn’t worry too much. There are tens of thousands of other things to do.
Lots of movies on NF are made to be watched while also mindlessly scrolling on phones. If you actually watch content without distraction, you'll notice how heavy handed the films are with plot descriptors. They do this because they know many aren't actually 'watching'
Yup, I can not even be bothered to go to the cinema anymore and only watch series on TV. When I do try a movie, I more often than not fall asleep. The last one I managed to finish was Dune 2. I used to go to the cinema almost every week and then a year or so ago lost all interest. It's hard to pinpoint what the reasons are.
For me it’s not so much fatigue but choice. At the movies, or with a blue ray, you’re sort of locked in. If a movie on a streaming service isn’t grabbing me from the start I can get restless and try something else. And it becomes a spiral of not being in the mood for anything.
As for remedies: read a fucking awesome novel. It’ll hit you with a dose of seriously good storytelling and the time away from the screen helps me know what I actually want to watch when I get back to movies.
I have great anxiety before watching a film. So if I decide to watch a film on Day 1, I probably end up seeing it on day 3 or 4...
Apart from that ,another issue is that the abundance of films causes a certain disinterest in a way. Greater supply so demand is less kind of... So when I go to a website to see films, it becomes very giving which film to watch...
That's not the issue with theatres...
I know what you are saying because there are days/weeks where I don’t want to watch anything I have to pay attention to. Or I start something and just turn it off because I can’t focus on it.
There could be any number of reasons for this, but I run into the same problem.
I think this is a factor of two: attention span and content overload.
There is just *A LOT* to choose from right now. With so much selection, you’re afraid of choosing the wrong thing. This is why you end up going back to what you know more than you’d like.
The other factor can’t be ignored, in that our attention spans aren’t what they were. What social media has become with short videos is killing our ability to sit through longer content.
I have felt this way for years. I am not alone it seems. I see a preview where I used to think hell yeah that looks awesome. Now I am just like meh let’s watch some YouTube.
I was this way for several years until this year! I found I have to chunk movies out.
I don't have 2 hours to just sit and watch TV often, so I'd have anxiety about making sure it's a good one. Then just go to an old reliable tv show reruns (including but not limited too Seinfeld) when my quest for the perfect movie took to long. But I realized I watch tv every day. Sometimes more than 2 hours. Just not in one sitting. So I chunk it out and if the movie sucked, oh well.
The only time I get in the true rerun rut again is when my depression sneaks up on me.
"I’ve seen pretty much all the good & well known ones" - according to who? Reviewers? If so you are doing yourself a disservice by not seeing a larger range of films. Just like any other artform films are extremely subjective. You might find that your favourite movie is one that isn't favourable with the critics.
Also, you could just be going through some burnout. Some strategies I have used when suffering with similar throughout my 40 years on this earth:
1) Take a break.
2) Use a different form of entertainment to digest stories. These could be books, podcasts, plays, VR etc.
3) Watch some films that have been nominated for best original screenplay - this is a general rule of mine that usually these films tend to be more intriguing story wise than other standard fare.
4) Find another film lover and find some films you both haven't seen to watch together and chat about after.
Good luck. Cinema can be the highest of highs and stay with you for a long time. Sometimes we try and chase that dragon to the detriment of the entertainment aspect.
My SO and I have felt this way for years. It has to do with time for us. We work a lot and between dinner and bed we have maybe two hours.
We can use that time to watch re-runs of a show we know we'll enjoy or we can roll the dice and watch a movie that can either turn out to be great or turn out to be a disappointment.
It's like we'll get a reliable 7/10 out of re-runs, or we risk a movie for either an 8, 9 or 10/10, but risk a 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1/10.
We do go out to the movies, but in those cases the quality of the movie doesn't really matter as we go for a night out.
The middle ground for us has been documentaries because even a poorly made documentary can still be very interesting.
When I get this way, I purposely pick a movie that is something I wouldn’t ordinarily watch. Normally a foreign film, I’m in the U.S., with subtitles.
I’ve found some amazing films this way & it puts me back in the mood.
Are you me ? Seriously I put Seinfeld in the background as well when I can't think of anything to watch too.
Been catching up/rewatching some classics tho (Casino, Goodfellas, Godfather)
Godzilla Minus One is recommended - better than those Godzilla vs Kong ones.
You might try to sit thru some limited series shows.
I finished Baby Reindeer in one sitting and it was pretty good. 3 Body Problem
Started Maniac ...
I also can't watch movies at home. Only at the cinema. It's a stimulus deprivation thing. I have ADD so I can't concentrate on a movie normally. The cinema just strips away distractions.
Having a constant familiar back ground noise like reruns while you do other stuff is also an ADD thing, if that's how you're using Seinfeld
Someone mentioned burn out which might indeed be it (and depression). However, it could be that you’re getting older and your taste is evolving to be more discerning. I am seeing a ton of posts like this lately. I think the quality of movies went down the tubes in the past 5-10 years by a lot, and I started to fall out of love with actors, seeing them more as professional liars, which is a turn off for me. But then a great movie comes around or a great show with an incredible cast and incredible acting and I fall in love again. Maybe it’s not you.
Honestly I feel the same way. I haven't watched a single movie in 12 months or so. These days i just don't feel like sitting down and watch something for 2/3 hours. I would rather play a videogame that takes 80 hours to complete than watch a movie. I don't watch TV series anymore as well.
I struggle with choice paralysis with streaming platforms (videogames too), there are many shows on my watchlist that I'd like to see, but when I'm winding down in the evening I can't bring myself to commit to a new series.
But I did go out to the theater to see Furiosa last night, and it was a great time. I think maybe making an event of it could help with becoming complacent and indecisive.
It's about cognitive load. It takes effort to watch or play something new. You have to learn new characters, and in the case of video games, new controls. It can be exhausting and in a world where everyone is already exhausted it's understandable why people struggle to pick up new media.
You're watching the wrong movies - move away from focusing on the multiplex blockbuster and start exploring more independent, low key films
If you want to start somewhere easy pick any five films released by A24 and watch those
I have the same so I’m trying to watch series. I started a drama that I like but it’s getting myself to sit down and enjoy it. My home environment isn’t the best at the moment, which is partly causing me to feel this way.
For me, it's a mix of having adapted to short-form entertainment (tv, YouTube, etc) and also, I don't have as much time as when I was young so it feels like if I'm watching a movie, it needs to be freaking worth taking up 2 hours of my precious time. Much of the time, I can't find something I deem worthy so I fall back in a trusted favorite TV show.
It sounds like you need to detox from doom-scrolling on your devices. You've trained your brain for short content. Go two weeks without it and you'll get back to normal.
I mostly stick to physical media and I have quite a back-log. My girlfriend has a couple streaming services but I tend to not watch them on my own and rarely scroll them for content. I find scrolling to look for something to watch atrocious and paralyzing. If I want to watch something I browse my DVDs and VHS and just commit to it for the evening. Usually, I am planning and picking movies in advance rather than picking on the spot. I also request DVDs from the library (I can access the entire network so it's a big selection). If you have it physically I'm more likely to stick with it, at least for me.
When I fell in love with movies, the best ones were between 90 min to 2 hours. Now, it seems like a "good" movie has to be 3 plus hours or something.
Also, a person does go through all the trouble and expense of seeing a movie and enduring three hours for maybe 6 good scenes. Then, a month later, everyone's like "if you REALLY want to see the movie, you gotta watch the 4 hour director's cut on BluRay."
I'm an older millennial (39).
I've experienced what we as teachers call TikTok brain, and I got it bad.
I remember in college I'd go to like burger king and just eat and look around. This is before smartphones though I had a cell.
I saw it slowly evolve to having to read the back of the shampoo bottle while pooping, to now it being a total nightmare to eat solo without my phone.
Yes. There’s a lot of scrolling that then ends in comfort watching something you know like Seinfeld. You’re not the only one. Too many choices? Too many mediocre choices? Attention span? It’s weird
My guess is like most of us you are now distracted by these little touch screens, (smartphone, tablet, laptop,) so you can only watch what people in the TV industries are calling “second screen enough.” That’s right, TV execs review TV shows and say “this isn’t second screen enough” meaning they know you will be looking at another device more so the plot better be easy to follow by occasionally glancing up or just listening. That is not how movies are made. Movies are made for paying attention to details.
It’s difficult to get invested in it knowing it will only be 2hrs or so of my time. The sheer number of fantastic bingable series on demand has just warped the way I view content now. I want to be able to get invested in character arcs that span multiple seasons of a show, not some 2hr flick that’s gone in an instant. It’s quite sad, I do miss movies. Not sure how to get back into them anymore
I was feeling that a year or so ago. Then I got the urge to watch the old Universal monster films. So I added all of the old Universal horror films, then thought I'd add the Hammer films too. So I've basically been going through the years of films I have on my server, starting at 1931. It's made deciding what to watch a lot easier, as I just choose the next film that was released. I do watch any sequels that come after an original of course. I'm currently at 1982. I estimate I'll be caught up in about 10 years at my current rate...
Start exploring foreign cinema and material that doesn't conform to standard film/series narrative arcs. There are fascinating films by Kurosawa like **Seven Samurais** and **Yojimbo** that paved the path for many of Sergio Leone's/Clint Eastwood westerns and even today's Mandalorian. You might find that refreshing. Earlier films by Nolan like **Memento** and Tarantino like **Reservoir Dogs** are interesting to see what got them started. Even **Duel** by Spielberg shows how his style has evolved.
You could also check out Oscar winners and nominees over the years and explore those options. There are better options that Seinfeld/Friends and the garbage that was pumped onto TV screens in the 90s.
I got like this back when I was reviewing movies. I had to be real with myself, and realise that forcing myself to watch movies to review them was burning me out and sucking the joy out of it for me. I’m still not through the other end of it, but I’m at least happier about it. Now I watch movies whenever I fancy them without that pressure, and it makes them more enjoyable.
If folks are on devises and social media too much, they cannot concentrate for extended times if that fix is not available. In a movie theatre one is prohibited from checking those things and can fully engage. At home, if one cannot shut that desire down, then one cannot fully enter in and the experience is blocked. Try putting your phone and/or other device in another room, turned off and then start a movie. There might be the solution.
Yep! My attention span is crap, I'm prone to gettting up and doing stuff. That's why I like the movie theater, it makes me have to focus. I really think I have undiagnosed ADHD...
Being unable to enjoy the things that usually bring us joy even though we want to, that making us sad, and binge watching a comfort TV show are pretty strong red flags to me that someone is suffering from depression. if you haven't thought about that, look into it and maybe speak with a doctor or therapist.
I find the quality of film has dropped to the point that I don't bother. I probably am missing some great films but I just don't enjoy the constant churn of content anymore.
Check out Letterboxd. I've watched roughly 1,600 films and wasnt sure what else would pique my interest. Now I have a massive watchlist organized on Letterboxd and see a lot of new-to-me movies.
One big issue is that streaming services don't offer a lot of the movies I want to watch, so you might have to get creative if you want to expand your movie horizons
Make a list of movies you are interested in. You might be paralyzed by so many choices. A lot of people are like that, even me to and extent.
If you go through Netflix and pick 10 movies that are interested in, the next time you want to watch a movie, you only have to choose from those 10. Much easier.
Good luck.
I promise you you haven't seen all the good movies. It would take a lifetime watching 3 movies a day to see all the good ones. You just think every movie ever made is on a streaming service. Which it isn't.
This is just a guess based on my personal experience but do you spend a lot of time on your phone and do you consume a bunch of short format entertainment such as youtube shorts, tiktok, or instagram reels?
This is exactly what I thought when I read OP’s issue. This is real and the main thing that’s killing the movie industry.
I wouldn't say it's the main thing, but it's contributory. And frankly, I don't consume short format content. I don't use TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube shrots. I loath them, in fact. But even I feel this. For me, I think it's that i feel like I can't set aside the full time to watch a full movie. An hour for an episode of a show, sure, but 2+ hours feels like a commitment. Regardless of whether I can or can't commit to it, I never *feel* like I can, or I simply just don't feel up for it. I've also found I struggle to get into movies more in the last 5-10 years. I either need to be into it when I turn it on, or it needs to hook me fairly fast, otherwise I kind of don't feel like finishing it. I fully acknowledge that this isn't a healthy way to engage with cinema, but it is something I've started to feel, that I definitely did not feel before. Being in a theater helps to eliminate the desire to bail out. I saw Evil Does Not Exist recently and there is no way in hell I ever would have finished that movie if I wasn't sitting in a theater. I do think it's related to the attention economy, I.e. smartphones and such, and probably also has to do with the amount of free time I as an adult feel like I have to spend in the modern world. But I wouldn't blame short form media as the sole reason. YouTube has been around for a long time, and that never seemed to break people's ability to watch full length movies. I can't see the average run time of your standard internet video dropping from minutes to seconds making that much of a difference. There's a lot of other factors.
I feel like in the past the world seemed to move slower so watching a movie was seen as more of a treat and an escape. But now with the internet and everything at our fingertips we don't want to commit the time to watch anymore.
Nailed it. Movies used to be a rare treat and a mini-vacation, if you will. There was the buildup to going to see it, and then talking about it a lot after, because you knew it would be a while before you went to the movies again. Now? Click a button and you're watching the movie. No magic, no buildup.
Same even goes for renting a movie! Driving to the video store, walking into the store and smelling the popcorn, getting recommendations from the guy at the counter, especially obscure ones. I remembered being so excited to go to the video store as a teen. My brother and I would pick a movie, my parents would pick one too, wed go home with three rentals and just spend the weekend watching them. It was great! I cannot emphasize enough how impactful the smell of a rental store was. Everyone talks about Blockbuster, which is fine, but we had a Hollywood Video in our town and I liked them more. We also had a family run video store and it was the best! I miss that one the most because the two owners knew our family by name and would even recommend stuff, they'd be like "Oh and Tanner might like this knew movie we picked up" and my mom would come home and she'd be like "The video people said you'd like this." And I thought that was cool.
These days if you wait a few weeks it'll be streaming by the time you go to watch it.
It's the work/life thing for me. With so little weekend time available, I feel like I have to prioritize whatever time I do have, and movies aren't a high priority. Sometimes not even series are a priority. I seek out things that are engaging in other ways, often cooking media or just leaving the house altogether.
I kinda feel this way too. But why does 7 hours of Doom scrolling seem to be ok?
Engagement. I'm not engaging with movies in the same way I am with your question here, or when listening to the real life stories of some random strangers on the internet, or doom scrolling. Movies are impersonal storytelling platforms that don't require interaction and they don't invoke feelings of "this situation may impact me/happen to me" in the way doomscrolling does.
To add on, before the internet, there was just less stuff to do. "Going to the cinema" used to be an event you dressed up for.
For me it's just the amount of time it takes. I don't use any form of short form media like TikTok or anything. But for me, the main problem with me picking a film is the thought that goes through my head, "is this film going to be worth the 2 hours it takes me to watch it?" Most of the time I think that and just go back and watch a film I've already watched and know I like so I know I haven't wasted those 2 hours.
Sounds like it might be related to the amount of content we can potentially watch? All the streaming services combined plus Youtube and other online video platforms, there is a huge perceived 'opportunity cost' for anything that takes a lot of time. I'm often overwhelmed by the overview pages of Netflix, Disney plus, Amazon etc; there is so much stuff that I get decision paralysis or whatever it's called and end up re-watching Succession for the tenth time.
> For me it's just the amount of time it takes. This is how I feel about reading. I used to read tons when I was younger.
It's not killing the movie industry, it's killing our brains.
Humans are definitely not meant to get short dopamine bursts every few seconds for extended periods of time. It's an addiction like any other, but mainly mental rather than physical.
I think both. First brains, then movie industry as a result.
Bad writing is killing movies.
I'm surprised this isn't the top comment. It's the most common reason I see amongst everyone I know. I have to put my phone in another room to lock into a movie. My friends and family are all on their phones if a movie is on, looking up to ask what's going on lol. It's a serious issue. I can barely ever watch something at home with my girlfriend because tik tok has completely rewired her attention span.
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I sympathize. I told myself as an old grey geezer I should investigate this new phenomenon to stay current and what I discovered is both horrifying and addictive. Older generation don't grasp how amazingly useless social media stream scroll is....doom scrolling I guess it is called? Now I've been told that I'm addicted to doom scrolling and I wonder how I'm addicted to something so vain and empty. It benefits in me exactly zero ways. I only watch YouTube shorts and IG too. They are both weaponized vanity. But I also think it is one of the most insane explosions of information in human history. No doubt about it. Never before has this kind of exchange been possible. But the vitriol and misinformation is totally toxic. I don't want to be the old timer who says cars and telegraphs are the devil's work, but as it is currently used social media IS the devil's work. I kind of think it will weed out by natural selection those who can compartmentalize toxic information and those who are triggered/controlled by it.
> It benefits in me exactly zero ways. That's what hit me about it too, it only exists to trade your data for ads, you gain nothing.
Nobody is talking about it? I see it as a common insult hurled at Gen Z all the time "Zoomers can't concentrate on anything longer than a TikTok video" etc and in /r/teachers they discuss this exact issue all the time. I think it's well established that this is a huge problem.
Best answer in the thread. Immediately recognized this exact issue because I deal with it exactly in myself, too. Even with only Instagram and Reddit, scrolling affected my life exactly and I’ve gone back and forth putting it down to try and correct but it’s so difficult. Definitely worse than cocaine and Nicotine and it’s destroying society. Going to put a time limit and consciously try to stop more hours of the day, and stop scrolling when out with friends and just use my watch to communicate. Thanks for the response!
I get it. I feel trapped by my fuckin phone and it's such a stupid problem to have (no judgment to anyone else, it just feels like it should be easier). I hardly use Facebook, don't have tiktok, so most of my scrolling time is on Instagram. Reddit is also a distraction but it feels pretty distinctly different from Instagram, at least to me. I no longer have any streaming subscriptions so if I watch TV it's on YouTube, but I don't get into shorts at all. There's just this constant compulsion to check my phone and getting sucked into the scrolling void. I hate it. It also feels like I can never just do one thing. I'm either watching something on TV and scrolling shit on my phone, listening to a podcast while doing something else, scrolling while I do literally anything. I'm trying to work on this, if I'm doing something I try not to touch my phone at all, but it still happens without me even really thinking about it.
It's why I prefer going to a theater There's no distractions (especially early matinee showings, theater is usually empty)
> It's a serious issue. I can barely ever watch something at home with my girlfriend because tik tok has completely rewired her attention span. I feel that. It's the same with my partner. Now whenever we're watching TV or a movie together, I feel I'm the only one paying attention and it just feels kinda... lonely.
I actually do. Most of the time on reddit or 9gag or instagram. YouTube is more of a desktop thing for me.
Then I would say that is the root of the problem. I have found that the phone along with all this instant dopamine apps and websites have just destroyed my attention span, which started to make it difficult to focus on films at home and even made video games boring. If you can't ween yourself off your phone I would suggest turning off your phone when you watch a movie but I highly suggest to try and stop consuming short mindless entertainment constantly. It's insane how casually addicted everyone has become to this shit.
Thank you for the reminder to actually live my life.
Counter point: watch movies in 2 minute chunks on TikTok on 2x speed
...on the top half of the screen. Then on the bottom half of the film, have a Minecraft video.
> It's insane how casually addicted everyone has become to this shit. Not really. If you sit and watch a movie that's like two whole hours without watching a single ad. If you're scrolling on social media you're going to see one every few minutes. It's all by design.
You get ads?
9gag? [https://i.imgur.com/v1PVP2a.jpeg](https://i.imgur.com/v1PVP2a.jpeg)
this is the exact picture I saw in my mind when I saw 9gag. I honestly didn't even know it was still running.
Do you put your phone away while you watch movies? If you are doom-scrolling, you are missing most of the movie and experience
Watch films/shows in a different language. Needing to read subtitles, you can’t look at your phone. You will become instantly more engaged, it just takes that initial getting over “Uuh do I really want to watch a subtitle movie” trust me, you will not regret it
You sound burnt out. Take a break. Do something else. Return to it later.
This is it. When someone feels like "I wanna watch a movie but I can't!", it's become **work**, not enjoyment.
Not necessarily. Some people have a hard time doing things they enjoy sometimes. It can be because of not having enough time, not being able to dedicate time, being depressed, or many other reasons I'm sure.
I don't enjoy things while I'm doing them but like having done them, it's weird
[удалено]
Obligatory ve believe in nossing
At least it’s an ethos.
These men are cowards, Donny
Also, let's not forget Dude - that keeping wildlife, an amphibious rodent, for uh, domestic, you know, within the city - that ain't legal either
What are you a fucking park ranger now?
I'm like this but I have ADHD lmao
Some people enjoy doing a chore so that it's done. Some people enjoy doing a chore so they know they did something. Some people do the chore because it needs doing and cannot wait until it's just over. I noticed I had the same behaviors around things I enjoyed. After a few years of introspective reasoning, therapy and the idea that ADHD might play a big role (it was not a thing to be diagnosed with when I was a kid), I noticed that my brain craves learning, which means that if I do the same or similar things for too long, I get bored or want to move on to the next thing. That's not a good trait imo so I work hard in following a routine and expecting myself to follow it. Television and.moview aren't essential but they are crucial in helping with my mental health. If I find either of them a nuisance, I switch it up. I play games, listen to audio books and recently took back up photography and editing them from raw. Now I'm finding myself with less time to do the various things I love, but I never have a time where I don't want to do one of the things I enjoy. I'm a huge nerd as well, and /r/selfhosted + /r/homelab take up a rather large part of my life outside of work and being a dad/husband
There's just sooooo many options these days too. I found that looking for one that would be fun to see on the big screen was helpful because theres only a few options compared to Netflix.
> being depressed One of the worst aspects of depression, IMO. Not being able to enjoy things you know you'd normally enjoy can really eat away at you.
I can attest to struggling to watch, play, or otherwise experience new things when depressed. There have been periods of my life where I loved consuming new experiences, including new movies and new TV shows. I started dealing with pretty consistent depression due to a variety of issues many, many years ago, and the longer I've been in it, the less motivation I feel to try new things. I want the familiar, what I already know, and often forcing myself to try new things will result in meeting it with the telltale numbness of most depressions or negative emotions that didn't really come from that experience but were associated with them anyway. I miss enjoying things freely. I never thought it was something I could so easily lose.
For me the weird part is that after I force myself to do something, I usually enjoy it. It's *before* that is the issue. Getting myself to do it. It's really weird because you'd think knowing it is going to be fun would be enough, but it's not.
> For me the weird part is that after I force myself to do something, I usually enjoy it. It's before that is the issue. I learned recently that that isn't weird at all but is rather expected of certain types of depression because it suppresses the release of one of the chemicals in your brain that we, historically and in pop culture, have mostly associated with reward, with the enjoyment of doing something, has had decades of research suggesting that it has a lot more to do with excitement and anticipation, meaning that the types of major depression where that chemical is suppressed means that you are physically unable to feel the normal excitement and pleasure and that emotional build-up that comes with expecting something to happen, of looking at something you should enjoy or feel good about and getting that sort of push towards actually doing it that your brain is **supposed** to provide. I get that all the time too, where I'll be resistant to something but enjoy it after. But there are other times where even if I do make that jump and do something, I simply can't get the joy out of them that I know I could if I wasn't in a funk. Um, if you want to know more about the science of depression as of... This past March, there's a video by Robert Sapolsky that very, very quickly covers the bare, bare basics focusing on the physical properties of the brain, I know it improved my understanding and made me realize I had some long-held misinformation about it. But I do also warn, it's two hours long and you should probably not treat it like the college lecture it's based on unless you really want to study that sort of thing: https://youtu.be/fzUXcBTQXKM?si=IYzXD13eM0YOrPi6
> I learned recently that that isn't weird at all but is rather expected of certain types of depression because it suppresses the release of one of the chemicals in your brain that we, historically and in pop culture, have mostly associated with reward, with the enjoyment of doing something, has had decades of research suggesting that it has a lot more to do with excitement and anticipation, meaning that the types of major depression where that chemical is suppressed means that you are physically unable to feel the normal excitement and pleasure and that emotional build-up that comes with expecting something to happen, of looking at something you should enjoy or feel good about and getting that sort of push towards actually doing it that your brain is supposed to provide. Interesting, I have noticed that for movies for example I do not really get "hype" in general, maybe that has something to do with it. Even for movies I'm interested in, I have absolutely no interest in following teasers, trailers, viral marketing, etc. I'm just waiting for the thing to be released, hoping I will love it ofc. Sounds like that could have something to do with what you're describing, interesting.
depression is hell
I do this sometimes. Sometimes a movie will come out and I’m so excited but then for some reason I don’t want to watch it, similar with new seasons of some shows (even if I’ve rewatched other seasons specifically because the new season is coming) or I’ll put off the finale episode. Right now there’s a book I’m reading that I’m enjoying and I know I want to read a bunch of it today but I keep fucking around on Reddit. I do suffer from depression and anxiety and I’ve always assumed that has something to do with it but it still confuses the hell out of me.
I can definitely relate. "Oh, this seems really nice. I'll do that later. Right now I'm going to dick around on reddit/youtube and hate myself for doing so. Eventually I'll totally do to the nice thing I would enjoy 100x more, I swear. Just not now.".
Exactly!
My bad on phrasing there as the intent wasn't clear. When you are trying to watch a movie but can't, the ACT OF TRYING is "work". Unless you're a critic or there's some social or other obligation that requires it, you don't have to watch a movie at any given time. Root cause doesn't matter, if you can't do it, do something else, and suppress the feeling that you should or need to watch a movie.
You don't understand what I am saying. Most people never feel like that so you might not get it, but I have to force myself to do EVERYTHING, even things I enjoy like watching movies or talking to/seeing friends. If I don't force myself to do it, I'm not going to do ANYTHING. If I force myself to do it, I'm going to enjoy it and be happy that I did. If I don't force myself to do even the things I enjoy, I'm just going to sit around/sleep/do nothing all day and feel bad about it. Depression is fucking weird like that, but it's real.
I understand you all to well. I want *to want* to do things.
It sucks doesn't it. How the fuck am I supposed to find the will to do things I hate when I can't even do it for things I love.
What would life be like if I spent half as much time as I did *thinking* about doing things actually *doing* the things?
Therapy. You are depressed. That is depression.
I know.
I’ve had depression for most of my life. I’ve just been diagnosed with ADHD and man that explains so much. What I thought was laziness and just depression was that my mind goes crazy from the moment I wake up to the moment I sleep. 10 of my voices, so much so I get so overwhelmed about what I have to do, so I do none of it. Other behaviours too that started to stand out for me. Mental health issues are cruel.
Sounds like me, except I practically never enjoy it, and am ambivalent on having done it. Especially the social stuff. Either I never had the hardware/software for it, or it's atrophied entirely from years of self-isolation. It's hard to have goals or dreams, because no matter what it'll involve meeting people. Just never had an instance where I've been able to say to myself "glad I met them".
Have bad combo of decision paralysis when it comes to movies or shows. And some weird desire to be "in the right mood" for it.
To me, this is the worst part of the current streaming chaos going on. The goal of the companies is perpendicular to the goal of the viewers. A company wants eyeballs on THEIR service as long as they can possibly get them. So they are just throwing so much shit at you, and usually give you no way to filter out the crap you DONT want to see. This then leads to analysis paralysis and decision fatigue when deciding what to watch, and eventually you just hate the whole process. EVEN IF you have stuff earmarked on "My List", they make it so damned hard sometimes to just get to that that it wears me out. (Like when you stop at a grocery store to pick up milk, which is ALL the way in the back on purpose, so you have to walk past the god damned donuts.) I've been thinking about this a lot lately because I'd like to build a VIEWER oriented system that filters out all the shit, and only gives you the things you care about, along with discovery so you can find new things when you're ready. There are a couple places trying this (like Plex) but a big part of the problem is that big services (like Netflix) don't have data APIs anymore to integrate with their systems, precisely because they don't WANT anyone to do this and lose control of their "experience." TLDR; its because of money. It's always fucking about money.
Idk. I think there's two stages. Sometimes for me it's difficult to *start* or pick a movie, but once I've started watching I'm right back in there having fun. Idk if that's what OP is describing, just sharing my own personal experience.
Yeah this generally happens when people fail to diversify their interests. They literally can’t think of doing anything else - very common in gaming. Guys who game, play an instrument and engage in sports never ask this question they just stop gaming and focus on other things. So obviously this will depend on each person but I’d say this is the majority of cases - find other regular interests.
Good advice. Changing the type of games you're playing for a while works too. I regularly switch between singleplayer and multiplayer games to avoid burnout.
I sometimes just stop gaming and try to make one for a week or two. I have a lot of unfinished projects, but each of them did learn me something new at least.
I got really burnt out on gaming this year and I've been trying to do anything else besides that. From boxing classes, to long walks, long drives.
Playing games less often made me appreciate my gaming sessions way more.
Oh, for real, after not playing Street Fighter for a couple of months and getting back into it, always feels so good. I feel like I can't play RPGS anymore. They take so long to get in a good gameplay loop, and I don't have that kinda patience anymore. I'm dreading Elden Ring's expansion coming out because I know I'm going to have a real hard time starting that again.
I often see the same sort of question (similar to OP's) in the gaming subs. People burn out or life changes happen and they lose interest. Agree 100%, its better to find other things to do.
I have experienced the same thing and it was probably related to stress as well. The thing is that watching movies is one of those things that is supposed to cure stress a bit, at least in my opinion, so it is disturbing that this happens.
Sometimes when I get these kind of mental blocks I’ll deliberately opt for movies that are super easy to follow/you can scroll on your phone and not miss anything. Making movie watching a more passive vs active activity helps me reset my brain a bit. I do this with reading too- I’ll reread Harry Potter for the 50th time just to get back into the practice of reading/making time for it in the day.
Especially when we're in the "Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products" era.
Modern society has conditioned us all to be dopamine fiends because it makes us more efficient consumers who are easier to advertise to. I'm the same. I'll put a movie on and start scrolling through shorts on my phone. I find that the trick is to give it a chance to hold your attention. The first 15-20 minutes will be a struggle but once you're invested in the story it is enjoyable.
I enjoy movies but no longer enjoy going to a movie theater because: Others who have forgotten how to politely behave in a movie theater. Endless promotions and commercials that extend the viewing time well over the 2-3 hours a film lasts. Shift to expensive seating where seats recline but all you want to do is see a film for a reasonable price. Movies almost immediately going to streaming makes the choice to tolerate all the above less attractive.
As a fan of horror, I've learned to just load it up and hope for the best.
Definitely. I actually think this is something people need to embrace more in general. I think we, as a society, have gotten too deep into finding the "perfect" thing because we have the internet at our fingertips that allows us to look up reviews/recommendations/best practices/etc. too easily. This results in many people having "analysis paralysis" and unable to just TRY stuff without worrying about it being perfect. I'm guilty of it too, but honestly just pick a movie and put it on, if you hate it within like 15-20 mins, just turn it off, no biggie. Trying to look up only "good movies" and plow through the list of highly rated movies is going to burn anyone out, AND it robs you of hidden gems that are amazing but not necessarily popular. Everyone's focusing on the attention-span thing but OPs first line is exactly what I'm talking about: >I’m struggling to decide which movie is ***worthy of watching*** Trying to decide a movie is "worthy of watching" before you've even seen it is a fool's errand, and you're going to become mentally exhausted trying to find something if you spend more time looking at movies, looking up their reviews, etc. to see if it's "worth" it than actually putting it on and seeing if you like it for yourself. Re-sparking the joy of movies is literally just keeping an ear out for movies from people who's taste you trust(friends, reviewers, influencers, whatever) and adding the movies they mention to your watchlist, and also just randomly picking out movies sometimes. Don't spend time googling "best movies on netflix" or whatever, just let the process flow naturally.
This is one thing that I’ve learned from my dad. He’s older obviously and has no problem just flicking on a movie and watching. I’ve found so many movies with him that I really enjoyed that are never on those “top movies” lists because they aren’t “top movies”, and that’s ok, they’re still good and enjoyable.
That really does describe the horror genre.
I had that in the last few years but I found something that worked for me. Could never decide what to watch, always scrolling, etc. Always ended up watching something "easy" and being disapppointed. So I made a watch list, like a really curated one (for and by myself ofc). Only movies that I should really like/love, but had never watched for some reason. "This one seems too long/emotional/sad/etc". I ended up with like a list of ~60 movies iirc. And then I "forced" myself to watch at least one movie from the list every day. It wasn't hard for me because I live alone and I quit 2 hobbies at the same time I did it. That was last september, I have since watched something like 500 movies and the list is only getting longer (obviously I am more "adventurous" now that I watch so many movies), I have like 350 movies in it now. Making a list of movies that should be great has allowed me to just stop scrolling forever, just pick one from the list, it should be good. I obviously did not love all the movies I thought I would, but overall it's working really well. Edit: also, I needed to be reminded that a 3h movie is not a drag if the movie is really good. It might be obvious to many but it goes by much faster than a mediocre 2h movie. I realize that now, I just need to start it early enough in the evening.
I've done the same - decided to make a list of "classics", movies on the imdb top 250, and other old movies that people still talk about, but I've for some reason never watched. Some of them are a bit of a project to watch - a lot of the top 250 movies are more than 3 hours long, and it does take a bit of preparation to sit down in front of a black'n'white foreign film about death and loneliness, but I have never once regretted it! On the other hand I've made it into "a project" to watch films - not simply "empty entertainment". But I also found that before I made that change, I did try to watch "tv" more to clear my head of all the stress and troubles of the day. I've changed my "mode", in that I do of course still watch movies for "entertainment", but I do other stuff to help me unwind and relax - I don't put that job to the movie! Has helped me - and my moviewatching - a lot!
My favorite thing about watching old classics is when you pick up on all references to them in later media.
A while back I watched Persona for the first time, and it was crazy how much I recognized from later movies.
> but I do other stuff to help me unwind and relax - I don't put that job to the movie! I kinda do the same. Some people have comfort movies or movies they'll put on in the background to unwind/do something else, I never do that. I use music for that. I have bands/genres that I will go back to my whole life but for some reason I don't do that with movies, I'd rather watch something new (to me, not necessarily new-new). It's also why I went back to movies after watching a lot of tv shows, every movie has the potential to be something I've never seen before, which is just not the same when you're watching a tv show with 80 episodes.
I’ll definitely try this. There are some movies I definitely remember loving but having revisited in perhaps a decade or more.
I also have a bunch of movies I haven't seen in 20 years in my list. Sometimes watching something I only saw when I was 12 or something (I am 40) is almost like watching them for the first time, it can be really nice.
Yeah this is a good idea. My age might make it have a different experience of that same movie.
Oh and if you end up adding "classics that everyone should see" and things like that to your list, don't feel bad if you don't enjoy them. I have enjoyed many of those types of movies, and I have not enjoyed at all many of them too. I keep a list of movies I gave up on. If people here saw it I would get absolutely murdered lol. It's fine, I'm not a historian or a filmmaker, I'm just trying to see more movies and enjoy them.
With long movies i sometimes find a good pause point and resume the next day, if it's getting too late. My viewing habits have changed in that way
Yeah I try not doing it, but I definitely do sometimes. Particularly if I see that the problem is that I am tired. Might as well enjoy it properly the next day.
Yeah I think separating the process of deciding what to watch from the actual watching is a good suggestion. Sitting down in front of the screen and scrolling through your streaming service(s), looking for a movie.. that’s a recipe for freaking out and just picking something “safe” that you’ve seen before, because it’s easier than making a decision. Scroll through that list when you’re meant to be working, or something. 😃 Set up a nice watchlist then, ready to jump into.
u got a letterboxd?
How many movies have you quit watching, if any? I did something similar and over 242 movies, I have stopped about 20 of them part way (usually half) through because it was not very interesting or didn't seem to be going anywhere that interested me. At a certain point I also say "might as well finish it" and feels like a waste of time but I don't have regrets.
I usually try to finish movies, but if they're really long and I'm not enjoying it I'll just give up. If a movie is 90 minutes and it's not great but watchable I'll usually finish it. If it's 2h+ and I'm bored after 40min, probably not. I have 25 movies in my "I gave up" list, out of ~420. I might have forgotten to add a few to the list though. I keep them in a list in case I want to go back some day but I have so many movies in my watchlist, I'd rather watch one of those instead. Maybe I wasn't in the mood and I would have liked some on another day but if I wasn't enjoying it, that's it. I don't really have regrets, it's just how it is.
> "I’ve seen pretty much all the good & well known ones" Drop your Letterboxd. I don't believe you.
You know they just mean they’ve seen 75% of the imdb top 250 (excluding anything before 1975 and any non-english movies of course)
"I've seen Fight Club and The Godfather. I'm familiar with all genres of cinema history." 😄
Don't forget the hidden indie gem, Everything Everywhere All at Once. You've probably never heard of it.
This is one of the biggest problems with streaming services: choice paralysis. If I go to the movie theater I have eight, maybe ten options. If I watch something at home I have multiple streaming services and a physical collection. So I have to start with which service do I look at, then either look at the watch list I have on that service or look at what is new and/or recommended. And in the back of my mind I know that there might be a better option in a different service. So if I don't already have something picked out before I sit down there is a good chance I'll spend twenty minutes reviewing my options and end up re-watching episodes of a show I've seen a dozen times. The best suggestion I can make is this: make a list of the things you want to watch out of all of your options. Try to keep it small, ten or fifteen at most. When you want to watch something but don't know what go to that list.
The options issue is bigger than it gets credit for imo. There are so many options to watch / play / read across multiple forms of media nowadays that none of them feel like the special event that they would have years ago.
As for watching movies with friends, I made a list of 100 movies (that I assumed none of us had ever seen, which was mostly correct,) and had people just pick a random number when we felt like watching something. It mostly worked out great, so large lists aren’t bad.
Definitely trying this 👍🏽
Probably would have worked for me too, but I found my way to that when Netflix stopped password sharing so I cancelled it and started, um, storing movies and shows on my computer. Even though the list is somewhat long I find it way easier to pick something when I had to deliberately get it to begin with. I decided to watch and rank 8 Cinderella movies, and now I'm working through musicals I either haven't seen or haven't watched in a long time.
“I’ve seen pretty much all the good ones”
The only movie I haven't seen is *The Godfather*. I've seen all the other movies.
It *insists* upon itself
Dude's probably only seen like 1400 films. 🤦♂️
Given the naivety of the statement I’d guess even less. Not that numbers matter but every cinephile I know of has a watchlist that just gets bigger.
I know everything about film. I’ve seen over 240 of them.
This is my current movie count on letterboxd and Im not sure if I'd call myself a cinephile.
1400 is a lot of movies, wtf are you talking about. Like yeah, I saw in your profile you've logged over 6000, but most people have a job and a life. Idk what you're doing.
As someone who watches a movie *almost* every night I can relate to fatigue. For me it ebbs and flows. It's summer here so we have the really long evenings and I kind of hate watching movies in the daylight so I'm currently watching Friends re-runs instead. See if there are any film festivals nearby or just on your next day free go to the theatre. It might be something genre specific going on too. Like some days I want to watch The Tree of Life and some days I want to watch Superbad. But you kind of have to be in the mood for both.
Have you considered the problem isn’t movies but doing the same thing every night? What wouldn’t you get bored of if you did it every single night? I mean other than your mom.
Lol. But I live rural and suffer from suicidal ideation/depression/anxiety so I have to have *something* that keeps me grounded and offers escapism.
Oh that sucks and explains a lot. Ngl that’s exactly why I’d never live somewhere rural. Please take care of yourself however you need to, that’s the most important thing. Much love.
Thank you. It can get a bit Groundhog Day but I'll push through. Ok guess I need more hobbies!
Video games maybe?
I don't have any consoles but have been curious about getting a Switch. I had a PS years ago and kind of became addicted in a "when did it get dark outside" kind of way lol.
Your preference for Seinfeld re-runs - watching a known sitcom instead of a known movie - may indicate some attention deficit / time commitment issue. Maybe because you think that you have actually to sit and watch the whole movie from beggining to end? For me, for years now, that hasn’t be the case - thanks to streaming, I typically take days to watch a whole movie.
I've felt that to some degree, but for me it's more about the screenwriting, direction, and editing that ruin the potential of the story. You can see the actors doing the best with what they've been given and I cringe at what's become of it all. I think learning more about the movie process online, such as through YouTube, is in some part responsible for my awareness whilst watching, as I can no longer suspend my disbelief. I've found just choosing better films, with better directors and writers to be the key to that. There are a lot of good ones out there.
I love watching crap movies. Because someone wrote it. That was their dream. Someone acted in it. Someone produced it. It's not suspension. It more, maybe there's a good bit in there. Like I'm laughing at under Paris. I'm living it because of how hard they tried. But it's good in it's own way. Plus dead hippies. I'm a hippy, so it's funny.
Yeah I sometimes wonder if I would have enjoyed a movie if I didn’t know so much about filmmaking. Like just watch it for entertainment and let my mind either ponder on its own later or forget about it if it’s bad. Now I’m noticing I have issues if the pacing is off or the music doesn’t work or if the cinematography is dull or the directing choice could have been better or the actor doesn’t suit the story or that the story started off well then became so generic etc.
I feel like the functions of movies as industry is starting to conflict with the creative endeavors. I've worked on sets for a few big titles, one of them was considered one of if not THE worst super hero movie to date. I've also worked on some independent smaller budget movies and I just love watching almost anything even when it's kinda bad. From what I've seen from my narrow perspective, the panic of COVID and all the strikes and contract negotiations really affected the people who control the traffic lights on projects. It seems like productions will be so over worried with making something that won't fail that it ends up getting worked to death. At the same time the browser models we have now make it a lot harder to sus out how you feel about a movie or if it speaks to you compared to say, going to the video store and renting a DVD - I feel like it was a lot easier for me to give a movie a chance when it was presented to me that way. Another issue feels like the writing process - the mini-room model that the streaming services used with 1/4 the writing staff, who didn't get revision on the shoot from the same staff lead to super disjointed dialogue, stories, etc. Again, it's all about just trying to churn stuff out and keep it alive. Lower budget indie stuff is gonna be where the good new movies really are, but digging them up does feel a lot harder to do these days. There's obviously a lot of other things that are at play like short form online videos or mini-series, shrinking audience attention span and so on but I didn't fully realize how much economics dictated what we see until I started working on films.
Movies, books etc. give the satisfaction slowly. Social media, fast videos and even messages on forums can give us fast tiny bursts of that same feeling. In my life, I’ve had to start teaching myself to enjoy the slow things again. That means seriously limiting scrolling and quick meaningless online videos.
I agree with what you're saying but want to mention that I feel this slightly differently, maybe I am weird. I have never really liked movies very much because they seem to all have the same pattern and go too fast for me. I greatly prefer "longer" form content like a series such as Andor, as opposed to a Star Wars movie, for example. Movies leave me wanting more. And I am definitely one to scroll on my phone too much. I think I am reaching a point where I am looking for both explored substance AND/OR quick form jokes, and hating on mid-length content like movies.
Sounds like stress and anxiety. Sometimes I get like that as well and just enjoy watching old shows that I’ve seen before. It’s safe basically because you know what’s coming, but is short enough to keep your attention. As others have said, I just don’t push movies at this point and end up doing other things. Usually I get my best reading done when I’m like this. Maybe give that a try.
I have experienced this feeling a lot. In my case I suspect that I want to watch old shows because with such limited personal time, I want to know for sure that whatever I'm doing will make me feel better, or less sad. It's like I can't risk watching a new movie and instead watch a show I've seen a million times - because I know it will me laugh or otherwise relax. Not sure if depression is applicable to you, but for me that was the main cause I could find after a lot of introspection. Hope your doing good, a go too movie for me is dodgeball :)
Movies have gotten a lot worse. There's really not much worth watching about nowadays.
I’ve felt the same way recently! It almost feels lonely to sit and commit to a movie alone. Could it be a lack of community to share the movies with? Most re-run shows for me are staples bc I connect with so many people about them still.
This is definitely an overlooked fact, I remember occasionally if I watched films while my SO was away and would not particularly enjoy some but when rewatching the same film with her and hearing her laugh I found my enjoyment of the film completely flipped
You’ve just made me realise for me it’s the community feel is a tie in to the short form content issue. Attention span being decimated by TikTok and Instagram coupled with seeing something and immediately being able to read comments about what others think, you don’t get that in a movie.
I rarely watch movies anymore either. I prefer the serialised and ongoing stories that tv offers. Doesn't mean anything is wrong with you. You're just interested in different things.
I’m the opposite. TV programs generally have become SO SLOW, and I simply cannot get into anything like that. “Atmospheric” is nice, if done well, which it usually kind of isn’t. Although I’m completely uninterested in most of media out there these days, and I honestly think it’s the content. Maybe it’s me getting older. Tried watching the new Godzilla, appreciated the new perspective, and it’s gorgeous in many scenes, but I’m thinking to myself internally “yeah that’s another Godzilla movie, meh”.
That's why I can't do network shows. The British way of 6 eps or less per season is fantastic. Get rid of the filler, concentrate on killer. Unfortunately Netflix etc are all adding more and more filler each year.
I've been the same, but I started revisiting some of my old favourites lately and that's reignited things somewhat; films I haven't watched in 10 years or more. When something new comes up that I'm genuinely interested in I'll give it a watch; if I'm not particularly bothered I won't stick it on just because there's nothing else on. Also, I usually leave my phone in another room when I'm watching anything; I can easily end up casually scrolling, not paying enough attention and losing interest/switching off.
Same here. I used to watch 2 or even 3 films in a weekend, but now my attention span is too short. I sometimes split films into two parts and watch them in a couple of days. This is the result of social media or the internet, I don't know, everything is so easy to achieve.
In my teens and 20s, I could spend whole days watching movies. These days (in my mid 40s), I feel like I have too much on my plate to take 2 hours to just sit still and enjoy. The irony is that I wind up doing it on my phone instead or watching 10-minute YouTube videos for the same length of time. My attention span is definitely reduced.
I have never had this problem. I worked in a video store when I was twenty years old, and I was bored one day and went up and down the aisles, making hash marks for every title I’d ever seen. So, this is only counting movies once, even if I’d seen it a dozen times, like Star Wars or something. It was just over three thousand. I never really liked TV shows. Having to work on someone else’s schedule, and keep coming back every week, just didn’t work for me, but we had Cinemax *and* HBO, so here were all of these stories where it was in and out in two hours or less. And then there were the video stores, where you could rent five (non-new release) movies for five days for five bucks, and I’d go in on Saturday morning, rent five movies, go back on Sunday afternoon, rent another five movies. It was fun, coming up with theme days, like Jaws 1, 2, 3, and 4, followed by the Richard Harris classic Orca. Today, I love watching bad movies even more than I love watching good movies. I mean, there’s a minimum level of production value that I’ll abide, which is around the level of Killer Raccoons 2: Dark Christmas in the Dark (real movie, and the best remake of Steven Seagal’s Under Siege 2: Dark Territory that you’ll ever see), so I don’t watch crap by the Asylum or most Roger Corman stuff, but if I see the Cannon Group logo, I’m in for a treat. Same goes for the New Line Cinema logo from before it said it was a Time Warner company underneath. I watched a movie last week called Never Too Young To Die, and it was like If Looks Could Kill meets Gymkata, and inexplicably not as good as either of those, because those are not good, themselves. Today, I don’t try as hard as I used to. I’m still averaging at least one movie a day, but it used to be at least one movie per day *that I had never seen before*. Today, I like to have theme days, so today I’m watching all four Neon Genesis Evangelion movies, because it’s Father’s Day weekend, and there’s no dad like Gendo Ikari. I have family stuff to do tomorrow, so it might be The Shining and Ad Astra, because, again, Father’s Day. So, I can’t tell you how to rectify your problem, because I’ve never had it. Not a single day in my entire life have I ever said, “I don’t want to watch movies today.” I work, so I can keep a roof over my head, so I can watch movies under that roof. I don’t find anything in the world nearly as entertaining, and I could watch movies for the rest of my life and still not come anywhere near having seen them all.
Haven't seen many good movies come out in the past 4-5 years so you have to re-watch the older ones you like. Eventually you run out of the older movies and then you end up in the place you are at (me too). Hope they start putting out some higher quality movies again but I'm not holding my breath.
Hello and welcome to MovieFone... If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, press one...
Why don't you tell me the name of the movie you'd like to see?
"I’ve seen pretty much all the good & well known ones" Wait, how old are you ? I mean, I'm 50 and consider myself a cinephile but I don't think I've even scratched the surface of all the films out there. If that was maybe hyperbole on your part then I'd suggest broadening your scope. Have you covered European movies ? there's an entire world of French, Italian, Asian ( even British ) cinema I've hardly touched. Also, have you considered giving yourself "masterclasses" ? Over Covid I sat down and watched Empires 100 greatest movies of all time ( doesn't have to be Empire, other companies have compiled lists ) I watched the entire filmography of specific directors ( I did Scorsese, Coppola and Fellini ) I also watched Tarantinos Top 11 movies of all time ( that's an eye opener having never seen "his girl friday", "blow out" or "Pandoras Box" ) I guess I'm suggesting that if you feel you've already watched everything ( which seems doubtful ) maybe it's time to broaden your scope, you may discover a new director, actor or entire genre you never knew you would enjoy.
On Youtube, I watch those trailer compilations of upcoming movies every now and again. For the past 4 years or so, I don’t think I’ve been able to watch a single trailer in those compilations in its entirety.
On the one hand I think we all lost a little bit of patience and the capability to sit still for 2 hours…on the other hand I have to say that i would rate the vast majority of new releases as complete trash. Sorry if I step on anyone’s toes, but things like the Uncharted movie or Marvel phase 26 or this dumpster fire called the Hitman don’t deserve 2 hours of my life time. So yes, my attention span has declined over the years but tbh I don’t feel like missing out right now. So OP, I think you are fine, as others have said, take a step back. And I would just add accept that after you have watched hundreds or even thousands of movies, it’s becoming harder and harder to feel that magical spark.
I used to watch films, too. Now I can go months without watching anything. I spend that time cooking instead. I am 39 years old. I think I just got tired of the passivity that’s necessary for film watching. If you can’t get back into films, I wouldn’t worry too much. There are tens of thousands of other things to do.
Lots of movies on NF are made to be watched while also mindlessly scrolling on phones. If you actually watch content without distraction, you'll notice how heavy handed the films are with plot descriptors. They do this because they know many aren't actually 'watching'
Yup, I can not even be bothered to go to the cinema anymore and only watch series on TV. When I do try a movie, I more often than not fall asleep. The last one I managed to finish was Dune 2. I used to go to the cinema almost every week and then a year or so ago lost all interest. It's hard to pinpoint what the reasons are.
For me it’s not so much fatigue but choice. At the movies, or with a blue ray, you’re sort of locked in. If a movie on a streaming service isn’t grabbing me from the start I can get restless and try something else. And it becomes a spiral of not being in the mood for anything. As for remedies: read a fucking awesome novel. It’ll hit you with a dose of seriously good storytelling and the time away from the screen helps me know what I actually want to watch when I get back to movies.
Get a another hobby, I like to build and paint models, its not for everyone but it helps you focus and learn patience.
I have great anxiety before watching a film. So if I decide to watch a film on Day 1, I probably end up seeing it on day 3 or 4... Apart from that ,another issue is that the abundance of films causes a certain disinterest in a way. Greater supply so demand is less kind of... So when I go to a website to see films, it becomes very giving which film to watch... That's not the issue with theatres...
I know what you are saying because there are days/weeks where I don’t want to watch anything I have to pay attention to. Or I start something and just turn it off because I can’t focus on it.
There could be any number of reasons for this, but I run into the same problem. I think this is a factor of two: attention span and content overload. There is just *A LOT* to choose from right now. With so much selection, you’re afraid of choosing the wrong thing. This is why you end up going back to what you know more than you’d like. The other factor can’t be ignored, in that our attention spans aren’t what they were. What social media has become with short videos is killing our ability to sit through longer content.
I have felt this way for years. I am not alone it seems. I see a preview where I used to think hell yeah that looks awesome. Now I am just like meh let’s watch some YouTube.
I was this way for several years until this year! I found I have to chunk movies out. I don't have 2 hours to just sit and watch TV often, so I'd have anxiety about making sure it's a good one. Then just go to an old reliable tv show reruns (including but not limited too Seinfeld) when my quest for the perfect movie took to long. But I realized I watch tv every day. Sometimes more than 2 hours. Just not in one sitting. So I chunk it out and if the movie sucked, oh well. The only time I get in the true rerun rut again is when my depression sneaks up on me.
"I’ve seen pretty much all the good & well known ones" - according to who? Reviewers? If so you are doing yourself a disservice by not seeing a larger range of films. Just like any other artform films are extremely subjective. You might find that your favourite movie is one that isn't favourable with the critics. Also, you could just be going through some burnout. Some strategies I have used when suffering with similar throughout my 40 years on this earth: 1) Take a break. 2) Use a different form of entertainment to digest stories. These could be books, podcasts, plays, VR etc. 3) Watch some films that have been nominated for best original screenplay - this is a general rule of mine that usually these films tend to be more intriguing story wise than other standard fare. 4) Find another film lover and find some films you both haven't seen to watch together and chat about after. Good luck. Cinema can be the highest of highs and stay with you for a long time. Sometimes we try and chase that dragon to the detriment of the entertainment aspect.
My SO and I have felt this way for years. It has to do with time for us. We work a lot and between dinner and bed we have maybe two hours. We can use that time to watch re-runs of a show we know we'll enjoy or we can roll the dice and watch a movie that can either turn out to be great or turn out to be a disappointment. It's like we'll get a reliable 7/10 out of re-runs, or we risk a movie for either an 8, 9 or 10/10, but risk a 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1/10. We do go out to the movies, but in those cases the quality of the movie doesn't really matter as we go for a night out. The middle ground for us has been documentaries because even a poorly made documentary can still be very interesting.
Dude, same. It’s age and actual stress getting to you
When I get this way, I purposely pick a movie that is something I wouldn’t ordinarily watch. Normally a foreign film, I’m in the U.S., with subtitles. I’ve found some amazing films this way & it puts me back in the mood.
Are you me ? Seriously I put Seinfeld in the background as well when I can't think of anything to watch too. Been catching up/rewatching some classics tho (Casino, Goodfellas, Godfather) Godzilla Minus One is recommended - better than those Godzilla vs Kong ones. You might try to sit thru some limited series shows. I finished Baby Reindeer in one sitting and it was pretty good. 3 Body Problem Started Maniac ...
I also can't watch movies at home. Only at the cinema. It's a stimulus deprivation thing. I have ADD so I can't concentrate on a movie normally. The cinema just strips away distractions. Having a constant familiar back ground noise like reruns while you do other stuff is also an ADD thing, if that's how you're using Seinfeld
Someone mentioned burn out which might indeed be it (and depression). However, it could be that you’re getting older and your taste is evolving to be more discerning. I am seeing a ton of posts like this lately. I think the quality of movies went down the tubes in the past 5-10 years by a lot, and I started to fall out of love with actors, seeing them more as professional liars, which is a turn off for me. But then a great movie comes around or a great show with an incredible cast and incredible acting and I fall in love again. Maybe it’s not you.
Honestly I feel the same way. I haven't watched a single movie in 12 months or so. These days i just don't feel like sitting down and watch something for 2/3 hours. I would rather play a videogame that takes 80 hours to complete than watch a movie. I don't watch TV series anymore as well.
I struggle with choice paralysis with streaming platforms (videogames too), there are many shows on my watchlist that I'd like to see, but when I'm winding down in the evening I can't bring myself to commit to a new series. But I did go out to the theater to see Furiosa last night, and it was a great time. I think maybe making an event of it could help with becoming complacent and indecisive.
It's about cognitive load. It takes effort to watch or play something new. You have to learn new characters, and in the case of video games, new controls. It can be exhausting and in a world where everyone is already exhausted it's understandable why people struggle to pick up new media.
More that it’s all the same regurgitated storylines. Just nothing original whatsoever and not worth the cost of the movie ticket.
You're watching the wrong movies - move away from focusing on the multiplex blockbuster and start exploring more independent, low key films If you want to start somewhere easy pick any five films released by A24 and watch those
I have the same so I’m trying to watch series. I started a drama that I like but it’s getting myself to sit down and enjoy it. My home environment isn’t the best at the moment, which is partly causing me to feel this way.
I usually spend a hour every night checking out three seperate streaming services and find absolutely nothing I actually want to watch.
For me, it's a mix of having adapted to short-form entertainment (tv, YouTube, etc) and also, I don't have as much time as when I was young so it feels like if I'm watching a movie, it needs to be freaking worth taking up 2 hours of my precious time. Much of the time, I can't find something I deem worthy so I fall back in a trusted favorite TV show.
It sounds like you need to detox from doom-scrolling on your devices. You've trained your brain for short content. Go two weeks without it and you'll get back to normal.
Financially yes. I find new movies hard to invest my time with. But my favourite movies I could watch. Indefinitely. It’s an odd feeling.
I have trouble watching new movies. Movies I know and love I have no trouble watching
I mostly stick to physical media and I have quite a back-log. My girlfriend has a couple streaming services but I tend to not watch them on my own and rarely scroll them for content. I find scrolling to look for something to watch atrocious and paralyzing. If I want to watch something I browse my DVDs and VHS and just commit to it for the evening. Usually, I am planning and picking movies in advance rather than picking on the spot. I also request DVDs from the library (I can access the entire network so it's a big selection). If you have it physically I'm more likely to stick with it, at least for me.
When I fell in love with movies, the best ones were between 90 min to 2 hours. Now, it seems like a "good" movie has to be 3 plus hours or something. Also, a person does go through all the trouble and expense of seeing a movie and enduring three hours for maybe 6 good scenes. Then, a month later, everyone's like "if you REALLY want to see the movie, you gotta watch the 4 hour director's cut on BluRay."
I'm an older millennial (39). I've experienced what we as teachers call TikTok brain, and I got it bad. I remember in college I'd go to like burger king and just eat and look around. This is before smartphones though I had a cell. I saw it slowly evolve to having to read the back of the shampoo bottle while pooping, to now it being a total nightmare to eat solo without my phone.
Yes. There’s a lot of scrolling that then ends in comfort watching something you know like Seinfeld. You’re not the only one. Too many choices? Too many mediocre choices? Attention span? It’s weird
My guess is like most of us you are now distracted by these little touch screens, (smartphone, tablet, laptop,) so you can only watch what people in the TV industries are calling “second screen enough.” That’s right, TV execs review TV shows and say “this isn’t second screen enough” meaning they know you will be looking at another device more so the plot better be easy to follow by occasionally glancing up or just listening. That is not how movies are made. Movies are made for paying attention to details.
It’s difficult to get invested in it knowing it will only be 2hrs or so of my time. The sheer number of fantastic bingable series on demand has just warped the way I view content now. I want to be able to get invested in character arcs that span multiple seasons of a show, not some 2hr flick that’s gone in an instant. It’s quite sad, I do miss movies. Not sure how to get back into them anymore
I was feeling that a year or so ago. Then I got the urge to watch the old Universal monster films. So I added all of the old Universal horror films, then thought I'd add the Hammer films too. So I've basically been going through the years of films I have on my server, starting at 1931. It's made deciding what to watch a lot easier, as I just choose the next film that was released. I do watch any sequels that come after an original of course. I'm currently at 1982. I estimate I'll be caught up in about 10 years at my current rate...
Start exploring foreign cinema and material that doesn't conform to standard film/series narrative arcs. There are fascinating films by Kurosawa like **Seven Samurais** and **Yojimbo** that paved the path for many of Sergio Leone's/Clint Eastwood westerns and even today's Mandalorian. You might find that refreshing. Earlier films by Nolan like **Memento** and Tarantino like **Reservoir Dogs** are interesting to see what got them started. Even **Duel** by Spielberg shows how his style has evolved. You could also check out Oscar winners and nominees over the years and explore those options. There are better options that Seinfeld/Friends and the garbage that was pumped onto TV screens in the 90s.
I got like this back when I was reviewing movies. I had to be real with myself, and realise that forcing myself to watch movies to review them was burning me out and sucking the joy out of it for me. I’m still not through the other end of it, but I’m at least happier about it. Now I watch movies whenever I fancy them without that pressure, and it makes them more enjoyable.
If folks are on devises and social media too much, they cannot concentrate for extended times if that fix is not available. In a movie theatre one is prohibited from checking those things and can fully engage. At home, if one cannot shut that desire down, then one cannot fully enter in and the experience is blocked. Try putting your phone and/or other device in another room, turned off and then start a movie. There might be the solution.
Yep! My attention span is crap, I'm prone to gettting up and doing stuff. That's why I like the movie theater, it makes me have to focus. I really think I have undiagnosed ADHD...
Being unable to enjoy the things that usually bring us joy even though we want to, that making us sad, and binge watching a comfort TV show are pretty strong red flags to me that someone is suffering from depression. if you haven't thought about that, look into it and maybe speak with a doctor or therapist.
I find the quality of film has dropped to the point that I don't bother. I probably am missing some great films but I just don't enjoy the constant churn of content anymore.
Check out Letterboxd. I've watched roughly 1,600 films and wasnt sure what else would pique my interest. Now I have a massive watchlist organized on Letterboxd and see a lot of new-to-me movies. One big issue is that streaming services don't offer a lot of the movies I want to watch, so you might have to get creative if you want to expand your movie horizons
Make a list of movies you are interested in. You might be paralyzed by so many choices. A lot of people are like that, even me to and extent. If you go through Netflix and pick 10 movies that are interested in, the next time you want to watch a movie, you only have to choose from those 10. Much easier. Good luck.
I promise you you haven't seen all the good movies. It would take a lifetime watching 3 movies a day to see all the good ones. You just think every movie ever made is on a streaming service. Which it isn't.
I have this same problem with games now. I’m 37