An over-abundance of what you love

A friend messaged me a little while ago and asked me to talk about over-saturation, specifically with TV shows.  At first, I didn't know what to say, but after the last week or so, I've been thinking about it enough that I have some thoughts.

First I have to explain the pre-internet way of marketing.  Before the internet, TV shows, movies, music...just about everything in the entertainment industry had a buffer zone of popularity that companies could react to.  If a TV show was becoming the new 'in' thing, there was a span of time where the early adopters started watching it to when the late majority began watching it and the early adopters were in full blown crazy about it mode.  This buffer zone was usually enough time for companies to hash out a plan in order to capitalize upon the popularity of whatever it was, deciding where toys, lunch boxes, etc etc would go.  By the time something became unpopular or the new 'in' thing was around, companies had plenty of time to rake in the money.


Then came the internet, or at least the internet as we know it now.  Because of the internet, that buffer zone has gone from several weeks or months to a matter of days, sometimes hours.  Take for instance Gangnam Style.  Putting aside the fact that without the internet it never would have become so popular in the US, or possibly anywhere other than South Korea, the video spread like wildfire in a matter of hours thanks to websites like Reddit, 4chan, Tumbler, Twitter, and Facebook, amongst others.  Within two or three days, the internet had parody videos, remixes, reposts, torrents, gifs, blogs, and so much more.  It wasn't until months later that a commercial tried to play on the popularity it gained, and by then, most people had either forgotten about it, or were bored with it.

And that's the problem and the benefit with the internet.  Extremely quick turn around.  Sometimes the content continues, and there is plenty of time to capitalize on it.  Other times, it's just a passing fad, and the energy should be placed somewhere else.  But because there is no buffer zone, companies now have to make that decision almost immediately.  It's why so many companies try to create viral ads for the internet.  If they succeed, they get even more free advertising with the remixes and the reposts and the parodies.  A great example of that is Old Spice Guy.

However, if they fail, they don't really lose anything they wouldn't have lost with just putting out a bad commercial on TV.  In fact, it's less risky because doing a viral ad via YouTube is cheaper in the long run.  You can't fault companies for saturating the market with something they can make money on.  It's why I always say, "The only way to get large companies to listen to you is to not buy from them."  Money is the only thing that speaks to companies.

But where does the over-saturation come in?  Well, let's take 'PQ's example of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. (yes...I'm talking about it again, but it's what he was worried about.)

MLP, regardless of what your opinion about it, is immensely popular.  There is countless fan music, art, animations, remixes, fanfiction, t-shirts, vinyl statues...just about everything. Unless you started working and releasing stuff back at the very beginning of the show's popularity (and producing good content), chances are you are going to have a rough time gaining any traction in the community.  The market is completely over-saturated with content, and because of that, even the die-hard fans are going to start losing interest because they've just been flooded with content.

Any market that becomes too popular can start losing people.  Contrary to popular belief, the first group you lose are the early adopters, also known by many as 'hipsters.'  The reason why you lose them is because they will quickly move on to the next thing that is going to be big, just so they can say they were in it first.  They will occasionally return, but once they have moved on, they aren't going to spend time or money on something old.

Next, you'll lose casual fans, the people that came in a bit late, but decided to stay for a while.  The only time they will come back is for nostalgia, or nothing better to do, and again they aren't going to spend time and money on it anymore.

Finally, you'll lose the late adopters, the people that showed up towards the end and burned through so much content to catch up.  They are really only staying around so long because they have so much to go through, and they don't have to wait as long to get it.  Everything is new to them.  But once they've seen it all, they will move on.

The only people that leaves you with is the die-hard fans.  Those people that have been loyal since day one, and have sworn an oath to remain a fan.  Usually, these are the people creating your extra content. They are also the people buying everything they can afford.  If a company keeps putting out product, they will keep snatching it up.  But alas, eventually they will move on too.

So what does one do about over-saturation?  Nothing.  If you are on the creating end of it, then there really is nothing you can do short of holding a meeting with every person on the planet and saying "We can only put out this much content per week amongst us all."  If you are on the absorbing end of over-saturation, the only thing you can do is just limit your intake.  Take it in moderation.  Don't let yourself be over flooded with content that you start losing interest in what you love.  But if you feel you should purpose your energy into something new, then do so.  If you come back to it, then you'll come back stronger.  I've been an Evangelion fan since 1997, but I've limited my intake of Evangelion in order to preserve my love of it.  There is plenty of content I've never seen, and most of it I probably don't want to.  But it's there should I ever need to get a fix for something that what I currently have doesn't fill.

So 'PQ' I hope that answers your question.  If anyone else has a topic they would like me to speak my mind on, send it to me.  I'll take it into consideration, and think about it for a while.  When I have a thought about it, I'll post it in a blog.

New Post

No...I did not forget to change the title.  Lately I've been thinking about how much excitement I get when someone I follow posts new content.  I follow several YouTubers of a wide range of fame, and I read quite a few webcomics that update at various intervals.  I get quite excited when one of them posts a new video or page for me to enjoy, and sometimes when I haven't seen anything new from them in a while, I get anxious, even sad that I haven't seen anything new from them.

I mainly started thinking about this because of being gone Sunday, and Nice Peter.  For those that don't know who he is, he's one of the driving minds behind Epic Rap Battles of History on YouTube.  What some people don't know is he also posts things like picture songs, and would usually post a video every Monday that was just him vlogging a bit and opening up his mail and showing what he got.  The Monday Show was actually the reason I subscribed to him.  I liked the picture songs, and the ERBs that came after I subscribed were a lot of fun to watch evolve.  But I really liked The Monday Show.  It was just a guy named Peter, talking with people that enjoyed his music, getting excited about the random things people would send him, and every week he would have something to say that always made me happy for the rest of week.  One week, he even talked about creating something, and that was the primary inspiration for this blog.  I watched that episode and said "Hmm...I think I should start a blog.  That would be fun, and it would give me something to look forward to updating each week."  I spent the next several months figuring out what I was going to talk about before I just decided on talking about whatever I was thinking about that week.

Then the Epic Rap Battles got big, and understandably Nice Peter began spending more and more of his time working on them.  Occasionally, he'd miss a week of The Monday Show, and would make them on Tuesday.  Then he started missing entire weeks.  Eventually for Season 2, he just stopped making them altogether.  As each week went on, I understood why he wasn't making the Monday Shows, and would go back to earlier ones in order to get a small burst of joy.  But eventually, I really wanted a new Monday Show.  Something where he would talk about something new, and we'd get to see what new crazy stuff he has, and hear him talk about something insignificant that inspired him to write a little song.  But just seeing him smile behind those yellow sunglasses cheered me up.

Finally, season two of ERB was over, and Nice Peter posted a video just saying that he was returning to making videos (and that he adopted a dog) for Mondays.  I was very excited.  And the next week, we got this.



I like it, much like I enjoy the rest of Nice Peter's songs...but I was hoping for a Monday Show.  Even if it was unedited, just recorded and uploaded, I would have liked to have seen one again.

And I wondered if anyone else felt this way.  When someone you subscribe to changes their upload schedule, or changes what they upload completely.  Do you wish they would bring back the old style of posts?  And do you get excited when someone you follow posts something new, or get sad if they don't post for a while?  Let me know in the comment below.

OCD

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  If you look around you on a daily basis, everyone you see has it to some degree.  The problem with it is most people use it as an excuse to either not do something they are supposed to, or as a way to coerce people into doing something they want.  There are plenty of people out there that have an actual disorder, a chemical or psychological imbalance that causes them to do things outside of what most would call normal (whether its repeating certain tasks a specific number of times, or washing their hands vigorously so many times a day that their hands are raw)

 

The problem is that people feel that OCD is just a term for anything they just want to see perfect.  So I'd like to set the record straight on this.  If you have ever said "This is really setting off my OCD." or "I'm OCDing about this right now.", you don't really have OCD.  Take a look back at those times, and truly ask yourself if you just didn't want to do something else and used what you were currently doing as an excuse.  Or perhaps you saw something doing something and you wanted it done a specific way, and used a disorder to try to get them to do it your way.

We've used OCD so much that it's almost become an irrelevant word, much like calling someone gay over the internet for doing...well anything you feel like insulting them on.  I've known a few people that actually were OCD.  The looks on their faces when you disrupt their routine in order to feel comfortable is actually saddening.  I've seen how angry or nervous they can get.  You learn to feel bad for it.

 

Because everyone really feels that OCD is apart of them though, we now need new levels of the term.  So to everyone that just uses the term, you are now a First Degree OCD.  What this means is you have things that irritate you, that you want to see perfect, and that you would rather do yourself in order to ensure that they are perfect, but if push comes to shove (or something much more entertaining or important comes up), you can forego the task for a while, even indefinitely.  You don't really have OCD, because it doesn't come up on a daily basis.  You don't have hard set routines you must follow or you break down and curl up into a little ball.  You just have things that irritate you.  That, or you just want to make a shelf at work look perfect so no one asks you to do anything else for a while.

Now to all those people who's OCD affects their daily lives, you are a Second Degree OCD.  And my heart goes out to you.  But let's give you something more impressive to call it so the rest of the world can have the now demeaned OCD.  How about Social Routine Perfectionism, or SRP?  I like the sound of that.  But I really do feel for you.  I had one friend that needed to do many of his daily tasks in fours, and originally we thought it was just a quirk until we opened the door on his third knock and he freaked.  And by freaked I mean his face turned to that of fear, and he almost froze completely.  We managed to calm him down by going outside and closing the door and talking with him and allowing him to knock his four times before going inside.  I really felt bad for him.

I'm not saying I'm above this though.  I've used the term OCD just as much as the next person.  But every time I do it, I realize the term has no meaning to it anymore.  And there are many other words that have the same effect, especially text acronyms.  Hearing people say "LOL" and "ROFL" out loud instead of laughing irks me for instance.  Why not just laugh?

What other terms do you think have been demeaned through overuse of it's unintended meaning?  I know there are a ton of them out there.

Also, no blog-post on Sunday.  I'll be in Southern California visiting family, and I'll be away from my computer until late Sunday night.  I'll be back next Thursday.  Thank you all for reading.  I've recently reached 700 page views, which is way more than I thought I'd get in only 4 months, so I'd really like to thank you all.