In media, flow is the “depthless circulation of disconnected images and sounds that exemplify the postmodern condition”. Through flow, human users are the main target and it is conducted methodically. Flow is essentially run by digiphrenia, or “the anxiety about being out of synch with our online identities and information flows”. This concept has constituted the digital age and our obsessions with keeping up multiple social media platforms. The screen time function built into phones today is a way to let users understand the amount of technology usage that they use on an everyday basis (as most of the time it is being used for meaningless functions). Additionally, I think a good example of flow, and this need to stay in tune with all current happenings, is through the decreased scene period in shows and movies. Over the past decade, the length of clips within tv episodes has decreased tremendously, and this is due to the shortened attention span of viewers. This evolution can be linked to user flow. Viewers get bored focusing on one scene and require new happenings. I think that this is similar to the phenomena of digiphrenia, because viewers are constantly trying to receive more and more content to stay in tune with information flows. Switching clips keeps viewers attention and feeds them with more and more information, allowing the series to stay afloat, and keep viewer interest.
3 thoughts on “Flow- Bella Kjellen”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I like how you talked about the length of programs such as TV episodes because as human’s attention spans continue to decrease, they must recognize that the constant flow of media I essential to hold the attention of the viewer. For example, as spoken about in class, people can sit on apps such as Instagram or Tik Tok for hours on end without even realizing it due to the constant flow of the media. With the constant flow of the media, the viewers are always engaged waiting for the next video or image to appear. As Tik Tok has limited the amount of time the video gets to 3 mins, 60 sec, or 15 sec, the most effective videos are less than 60 sec because of the lack of attention span and lack of constant flow.
I think you make an interesting point by relating flow to the shortening of scenes in film. I have definitely noticed movies and tv shows getting shorter and shorter because of people’s shortening attention spans. With apps such as TikTok that gives content in only 15 seconds, it is becoming harder for people to sit through a whole long movie. I also think this relates to fast-paced action packed movies that tend to be popular currently. This movies load a ton of action all into one scene so that the watcher is easily entertained and drawn in.
I agree that flow revolves around digiphrenia. I always feel a great deal of anxiety whenever I miss posts or videos from people I care about or if I post something on social media. I often felt the need to check back and see how many likes or new followers I gained. However, I recently discovered that there is a way to block yourself from seeing all the numbers of likes or follows on your account. Moreover, your opinion on the shortening of scenes in tv shows and movies is something I have noticed, but by which I feel very saddened that social media and film are combining similar tactics to accommodate viewers instead of producing something of substance and art.