Everything Is Dead and We Killed It
a day ago
- #media studies
- #cultural criticism
- #nostalgia
- The article discusses the frequent declarations that various cultural phenomena (SaaS, punk, cinema, etc.) are 'dead,' suggesting this is a common but often premature or misguided claim.
- It identifies four mechanisms behind these death declarations: definitional gerrymandering (narrowly defining something to exclude current examples), status signaling through pessimism (claiming sophistication by declaring decline), peak experience regression (blaming cultural change for personal nostalgia), and territory marking (claiming authority by declaring something dead).
- The author argues that these declarations reflect our poor handling of cultural change, mistaking personal nostalgia or diminishing wonder for actual decay, and using pessimism as a cheap way to signal intelligence or claim authority.
- The piece concludes by questioning whether these death declarations are accurate assessments of cultural change or merely reflections of the declarer's aging and nostalgia, urging readers to consider their own biases when making such claims.