released 3/27/2026

Todd Gitlin discusses the effects of media saturation on our mental and emotional lives. Sensory overload from media bombardment leads to an ongoing experience of shallowness, as we get habituated to having our emotions and mental states change frequently. Gitlin argues that we simultaneously resent and crave this experience, and that it ultimately cheapens our lives. He also links the growth of a general cynicism to this phenomenon of media saturation, noting how it manifests in a blasé attitude and conversation full of snappy dialogue rather than thoughtful responses. There are political ramifications of this attitude, as people find it harder to commit themselves and become deeply involved in civic life beyond consumerism for the sake of the economy. Gitlin says Americans are driven (and encouraged) to consume not because we are materialists and sensualists, but to satisfy desires for meaning and transcendence. We are “so dreadfully serious about our play,” he says, a situation that reveals an inability to be truly festive and engage in genuine playfulness. Gitlin is the author of Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives (Metropolitan Books, 2001). A portion of this longer conversation was originally published on Volume 59 of the Journal and was also published as an Archive Feature.

33 minutes

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