This is more about media in general, so it includes movies, videogames, etc.

One thing that's been greatly bothering me lately is the way that people, specially younger folks, treat media consumption like a chore that needs to be done with as fast as possible, and how it is absolutely necessary to be "caught up" on ongoing media pieces.

We know that FOMO is manufactured on purpose to increase consumption - and I blame a lot of it on Netflix -, but it's the way that people are dealing with it that's been baffling me, which is making "watching guides" that recommend skipping any episode or chapter of a show that does not directly move the main plot. More and more, I've been seeing people talking about how everything that's not explicitly pushing the main plot thread forward is "filler". I've seen someone saying that episodes focused on character development are filler and can be skipped, or recommending that people catch up on shows through text recaps, or even watching whole shows at 2x speed.

All in all, it seems like entertainment is not necessarily the priority anymore when picking something to watch. Enjoying the show itself is not as important as having watched it and therefore having the ability to discuss it and preventing yourself from being "spoiled". And that leads to not only a very joyless, utilitarian way to engage with media, but also to a lowering of the quality of the discussion surrounding these pieces of media, as the people who are engaging in discussion have not seen the whole series nor do they care to.

Compounded on that, there's the widespread dominance of short form video in social media, which leads to people engaging with a series, movie or game through small clips, not necessarily in order or context. I've seen a trend of people preferring to watch "best moments" compilations rather than watching a long series. They don't feel like they're missing out on context on anything else. I've seen people directly saying that reading the Wikipedia page of a movie is the same thing as watching the movie because you "know what happens".

What's up with that? Do any of you feel this pressure to "catch up" on media and participate on discussions? Do spoilers upset you? I'd love to hear your opinions on this subject.