Henrik Carlsson's Blog

All things me.

I’m so fed up with content

posted this article on and tagged it with Black Mirror Content Handwritten Subscription services TV shows

Linn and I have started watchning the latest season of Black Mirror. (Season 6, I think.) So far we’ve only seen the episodes ”Joan is Awful” and ”Loch Henry” and I think both were good.

In the past I’ve thought that the problem with ”Black Mirror” is that it’s rarely as clever as it thinks it is.Its good ideas have usually been explored better in earlier works of sci-fi and it has this air of baby’s first dystopia. Two episodes in and I feel that this problem is less present in this season, even though the meta narrative stuff they’re doing at the moment are balancing on the edge of becoming masturbation.

But I’m not here to complain about Black Mirror. I’m here to complain about Netflix.

The problem isn’t the service Netflix, it’s the Netflix apps. They’re just so noisy. When I want to find something to watch I want to browse a list of recommendations, of I’m searching for something specific and want to see the results of a search. Netflix does present a list to browse but doing so is like browsing a minefield. Whenever I stop the cursor for just a second to read something or look at a poster, the thing I’m currently highlighting starts autoplaying.

I’ sure there’s lots of data that suggests that this maximizes the consumers engagement with the content. But I don’t want to consume or engage with content. I want to watch a movie or a tv show. Sometimes to relax and to take my mind off of things and sometimes to challenge myself to new ideas and perspectives!

When I finally find something to watch in this endless sea of content to consume, if that something is a tv show the next annoyance shows up.

”Skip intro”

I HATE the ”skip intro” button. If what I’m watching is something that’s really meant to be watched for its artistic merits, the intro is part of the experience. The director and editor has crafted the pace of the film (or show) with the intro in mind. Is sets the tone, tells part of the story. The ”skip intro” button just tells me that I should rush past this boring thing and get to the content.

And then, after I finished watching an episode of something, enter the stress again. As a movie or an episode ends I like to remain immersed in the world I just visited and think about what I saw while the credits roll. Oh now you don’t, says Netflix and starts pushing the next thing. If I want to stay with the credits I have just a few seconds to find the remote and quickly tell it that yes, I’m actually watching this and I want to continue doing that.

Why, Netflix, are you so afraid of me actually getting a few seconds to think? Are you that worried that I’ll realize that so much of what You present to me are just meaningless, artless content meant to distract my mind and keep me subscribed?

Post scriptum: The rest of the season was good as well.

∞
posted this note on and tagged it with Handwritten Photo

18th of July

Linn, the kids and I are currently out with my dad’s camper van. This is the first night this time and we are at ”Furuvik”, an amusement park that we really like.

Last year we did the same thing and back then it took a while before it became a nice experience. The first night, and even more so the morning after the first night, it was really not a nice experience. All of us were in a bad mood and everybody where angry with each other. This year it seems much better.

We took quite a short trip in the park today and headed back too the camper early instead. We ate some food and some snacks, Linn and I have some wine and Ebbe made a new friend. All in all we all had a great evening. Now I’m sitting outside, writing this in my notebook and once I’m done I’ll go inside the van to sleep. Hopefully the others are asleep already. At least in theory they should be.

∞

Threads

posted this article on and tagged it with Handwritten Social Networks Threads

I wrote this headline in my notebook a few days ago, thinking that I should collect my thought on Threads under it. Up until now the page has remained empty. The thing is, the more I think about Threads the less I care about it.

Don’t get me wrong, if you’re on Threads and you are having a great time there then good for you. The same goes for having a good time on Instagram, TikTok or Twitter och Reddit or whatever. People having a good time on (or off) the internet is a good thing. I’m not here to say that Threads is meaningless or uninteresting on an objective level, just that it’s uninteresting to me.

∞
posted this note on and tagged it with Handwritten Photo

This might just be one of those ideas that I only stick with for a couple of days but right now I write my blog posts with a pen and paper. Then I transcribe them on the computer when it is time to post.

If I am going to stick with it, I’ll probably need a new and better notebook.

A pixelated photo of my notebook and laptop
∞
posted this note on and tagged it with Handwritten

July the 6th, 5:50 pm

I’m sitting under a roofed section of the deck. The clouds rolling in are so dark blue as to almost come off as black. The power cuts out and all those noises of modern life, the ones we are so used to that we don’t even hear them anymore, disappears.

I don’t see any lightning, maybe it’s too bright still, but I hear the roar of thunder. I love a good summer thunder storm.

5:53 pm

The rain starts pouring and I see a flash. It hits the ground within a hundred meters or so. The sky is no longer dark but bright white from the rain.

Yet another lightning strikes and I count in my head. One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three… I get to six Missisippies before the thunder roars. As it dies down, so does the intensity of the rain.

6:07 pm

The power returns. The brief respite from modern hi tech life ends.

∞
posted this note on and tagged it with Handwritten Photo Reading Stand By Me Stephen King The Body

Sitting on the deck out in the backyard. The family is asleep and I’m slightly drunk on bourbon. Doing some writing with an actual pen & paper and reading Stephen King’s ”The Body”.1

Life ain’t too bad at the moment.

My POV on the deck. Book in hand.
  1. Yes, actual reading. Not listening to an audiobook. ↩
∞

Profile Photo © Henrik Carlsson