May I have you attention, please?

A few years ago, my sister and I watched Dune. And to be honest, I didn’t like it. I thought it was weird. I thought it was hard to follow. It seemed overblown.

Then the second movie came out. I refused to watch it, given my reaction to the first film. But then I started to hear everyone rave about how incredible it was. There were references all over instagram. My friends were telling me it was the best film they’d seen in awhile.

It started to feel like maybe the problem was maybe me and not the film.

So my sister and I decided to watch the second film. And as soon as it ended, I turned to my sister and told her we needed to rewatch the first film because clearly we had misjudged.

And as we watched, I realized what the problem had been. The problem had been that we were totally distracted when we watched it the first time. I had been visiting her in the middle of a multi-leg trip. She had just adopted a super skiddish, needy dog who was terrified to be without her. We didn’t even have time to finish it in one sitting. And we were undoubtedly on our phones in the midst of all that.

This, it appears, is the problem that Netflix is trying to fix. Apparently, they often include notes on films they’re producing to spoon feed the plot to the audience because the belief is that the audience won’t be able to keep up otherwise. And that is because they are certain the majority of their audience will be on their phones, totally distracted.

Are they right? Well, it’s hard to argue with the logic. Most of us are on our phones the majority of the time these days. From Netflix’s perspective, they’re meeting the audience where they’re at. They’re making the plot more accessible for people who are multitasking.

But at the same time, are they right?

If I were writing a character in a script, this would be how I would write this scenario. Person A (Netflix) wants to go to the company holiday party but doesn’t want to go alone. So they invite Person B (the multi-screen viewer) to go with them… knowing that Person B is a borderline alcoholic. Person A is not necessarily pulling Person B over to the open bar, but they’re inviting them into a scenario where there’s a high likelihood that person B is going to be sloshed by the end of the night.

And when someone who’s prone to being on their phone way too much watches a movie that’s too on the nose, the first thing they’re going to do is pull out their phones.

To me, that’s wrong.

It’s not just the moral aspect of it either (although that is a huge concern of mine). It’s also just laziness.

Because if a movie or TV show demands your attention and delivers on the promise that it’s worth it, you aren’t buried in your phone. You’re captivated by one screen alone.

Did you see Sinners? I dare you to tell me you were scrolling through social media while that gorgeous cinematography and  thick-as-pea-soup tension played out in front of you. I chickened out and didn’t end up seeing it in theaters (I can’t do horror in a theater after watching Nope) but I wish I had because it was so breathtaking.

Or what about KPop Demon Hunters (ironically a Netflix movie)? Were you reading through Reddit posts while Rumi was trying to figure out who she was and Jinu was trying to decide if he was going to be the bad guy or allow himself to fall in love? Were you only half paying attention during “What it Sounds Like” or were you bawling your eyes out like me?

I could say similar things about Everything Everywhere All at Once or the Into the Spiderverse films. And don’t get me started on TV shows like Severance, The Bear, Pachinko, Andor, Shogun.

These shows and movies don’t spoon feed you anything. They’re as complex and intricate as they want to be because they know that you’re going to start to register that something is different about them. You’ll want to pay attention. And you’re going to put. that. phone. DOWN.

When experiences like this exist… why are we watching mediocre movies and shows that make us want to pick up our phones and only half pay attention? Why are letting companies tell us that the mediocrity is what we want? Why are we not demanding stuidos make better content or we’re cancelling our subscriptions?

Okay, maybe there are more important things in the world besides what movies are getting made. But my point isn’t really about the films you’re watching. It’s about how attention is our most valuable resource we have to give.

Attention is limited, and everything around us is vying for it because it’s so precious. It’s so precious that companies would rather lower the quality of their content or product to get a portion of your attention more of the time. This is not just streaming services spoon feeding plot lines. It’s also trends on social media and bot-generated posts. It’s fear-centered news. It’s AI content that hasn’t been proofed or is incredibly generic.

Yet we often throw away our attention on something we’re not even going to be able to remember the next day because it was so forgettable. And we do this because we’re so exhausted and worn down by everything going on in the world that we just can’t even think about it.

This is a travesty. Because splitting our attention across mediocre content numbs us even further and makes it harder to pull ourselves out of the quagmire. Because our time is so precious that it should only be spent on the things that we love and care deeply about.

And quite honestly? The movies and television we choose to consume is the easiest way to take back some of that control.

So the next time you’re watching TV and you’re tempted to pick up your phone, I hope you remember that you have a choice. And then I hope you choose to go find something more engaging to watch or do. You deserve to fall in love with the things that receive your attention.