Today I learned a new phrase recently: second-screen viewing.
If you’re thinking about a futuristic cinema setup with multiple monitors and a serious film-studies vibe, don’t worry. That’s not it.
It simply means watching a show while also scrolling your phone.
Which you are absolutely doing right now while reading this. Don’t lie. I can feel it.
The industry, understandably alarmed, has decided the solution is not to ask us to stop scrolling, but to adapt storytelling to the assumption that we are half-present. Characters now repeat things. Plot points are underlined. Emotional moments arrive with verbal footnotes, just in case you missed them while watching a video of a dog chasing its own tail.
Picture this.
Star Wars. Darth Vader delivers that iconic reveal. The music swells. Silence. Drama. Then, just in case, he adds:
“No really. I am. I’m being serious. This is important. Please look up from your phone.”
Or imagine Breaking Bad.
Walter White leans in and says, “Say my name.” Then "Again, louder!".
Then a recap voiceover: He wants them to say his name.
You nod, not because you’re moved, but because you’ve just looked up in time.
This is where we are.
Stories are being written not for attention, but for interruption. Characters must assume they are competing with notifications, texts, group chats, memes, and someone you barely know posting “big news coming soon 👀”.
And look, I get it. Life is busy. We’re tired. The phone is right there.
But there’s something quietly tragic about the idea that instead of protecting focus, we’re redesigning art to survive distraction.
Are we dumbing things down?
Or just training ourselves to never fully arrive anywhere?
Probably you are now, scratching your head, thinking: Was it always like this? No. We used to sit in silence for entire episodes. We waited a week. We argued about endings. We missed things and lived with it. Now we need reminders. Summaries. Emotional subtitles.
So maybe the real cliffhanger isn’t what happens next in the show.
It’s whether we ever put the phone down long enough to notice.
Don’t worry.
I’ll repeat that again in case you missed it.
More info: absurdsociety.fun
