I enjoy listening to podcasts. I listen when I’m driving, when I’m cooking, in the evenings,when I’m mowing the lawn, when I’m vacuuming and when I’m walking in the evening.
I listen to history, comedy, advice shows, alternative news (libertarian), commentary and others based on whatever I happen to be interested or find entertaining at the time.
Unfortunately, like everything else that become trendy, podcasts have jumped the shark. I blame Joe Rogan and Barstool Sports. Both started podcasting years ago before podcasting was trendy. Both became really popular. Both started making some serious money.
Now everybody who wants to “get rich quick” has jumped on the podcasting bandwagon. And most of them are pretty awful.
I get it.
Everyone wants to make money. If I could make easy easy money sitting around babbling with my friends and spouting off my uniformed opinions, I’d do it too.
I already do this for no money right here on my blog.
It’s interesting to watch the media stars jump on the bandwagon. People like Megyn Kelly and Bill Mahr have podcasts that basically mirror what they’ve done on TV.
NPR, News Channels and Interview podcasts from major media outlets follow the exact same formula they use on TV and radio – melodramatic music, breathy pauses and carefully scripted stories.
Some of these make the “Top Lists” – likely because they bring their existing audience with them.
I imagine many of them will drop off in time when the next big trend pops up.
The hype machine for podcasts is in full swing. The early stars will make money – some will become fabulously rich. Then the big corporations will come in and milk the medium for whatever they can. Then the latecomers will get in and lose money (or if their lucky, just interest and time).
I’ve seen this before and so have you:
- America Online (and Prodigy, Compuserve, Yahoo, Lycos)
- MySpace, Friendster, Napster, Facebook (still making $), Vine, Twitter (overwhelmed by bots and smart asses)
- Network Television
- Cable TV
- Streaming Services
I think this creative construction and destruction of media is inevitable in society. It began with written language “destroying” a man’s memory (I think Socrates said this). The with the printing press. Then with newspapers. Then records, films, tapes, CDs, DVDs and so on up until today.
When I try to watch TikTok videos, I can barely do it. I have no interest in watching someone film a street food vendor, lip sync or dance. I don’t find it entertaining or the least bit interesting.
But apparently millions of people in the US (and worldwide) do.
I skipped a number of the trendy media technologies. I never got into MySpace, Napster, Facebook or Twitter. They became popular and unpopular before I spent any time exploring them.
That doesn’t make me better or worse than people who found them entertaining, informational or useful.
But I’ve taken the same approach with podcasts. I’ll limit myself only to what is interesting to me. Don’t follow trends and couldn’t care less about Top Lists.