this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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Basically a repost pf things I said in the mega, but anecdotally I'm hearing that sales of fiction read by men are dropping precipitously, and English and literature classes in colleges are now dominated by women. It seems like young men are not being exposed to literature in the same way that they used to. Like, when I was in high school and college, you could be a "bro" kind of guy and read Chuck Palahniuk, or Hunter S. Thompson, or David Foster Wallace. For decades, authors like Hemmingway and Bukowski found receptive audiences in young men, not to mention all the crime fiction, horror, sci-fi, and fantasy that men have traditionally consumed. The "guy in your English class who loves David Foster Wallace" was a stereotype for a reason. I read in another thread that music is less culturally important to young men than it used to be. It seems like younger men just straight up see no value in reading literature or fiction, or exposing themselves or critically engaging with art and music, because the algorithms just railroad them into Alpha Gridset world.

Am I wrong about this? Am I being condescending and out of touch, or is this a real thing that's happening, where the whole "male" culture is turning into grindset podcasts and streamers?

Edit: Okay, so the impression I'm getting is that everything is worse but also kind of the same as it ever was, which sounds right.

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[–] novibe@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That’s YouTube shorts. TikToks can be much longer than 1 min.

[–] The_sleepy_woke_dialectic@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

30 minutes I'm seeing online, that's decent for a video essay even.

[–] novibe@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I only started using TikTok cause a cool commie I follow on YouTube posts exclusive (long-form) content on TikTok 🤷‍♂️

And tbh I found many other cool commies on my FYP. Like the algorithm is much better than YouTube. YouTube will still from time to time suggest sigma grindset videos to me, or straight up fascist shit even. That has never happened on TikTok.