The Summer Of Viewership
Due to a global pandemic that’s forced us inside, it’s almost felt like we’re watching 2020 pass us by. Isabelle Jocelyn reflects on quarantine — and shares a glimmer of hope
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For the last four months, it feels like we’ve been in a time loop. A very unscripted time loop.
Then again, isn’t a time loop supposed to be predictable?
2020 has been anything but that. Yet here we all are, trudging along, repeating, breathing, living, scratching our heads when wondering what the date is, anyway.
Days become the same to the point where if you blink fast enough, the weekend feels like a blip in time. For me, the cycle of waking up, eating, exercising, finding work, reading, and writing never seems to end.
It’s like this Summer of Viewership. In a time where everyone should be outside and enjoying the ease that summer brings, we’re stuck indoors, creating routines that keep us afloat, watching the days go by, yet sinking into a point where that “time is a construct” saying really hits home.
So if you’re like me, you have probably tried to break that cycle a bit by diving into a variety of content that streaming services have had to offer. Maybe you watched something you thought you would never watch because of COVID-19. No, I didn’t watch Tiger King. I couldn’t even pay attention to Uncut Gems because of the level of stress in the movie. However, Too Hot To Handle gave me a good laugh months ago when I got to watch it. Since I was stuck in terms of entertainment, it was something light to watch while doing my work during my last semester of college.
One of the things that the content I consume constantly reminds me of is how we were living before the virus. How there was a point months ago where we all stood less than six feet apart from each other, devoid of masks.
To think of that now is a bit cringe-worthy. Whenever I see characters getting haircuts, eating out at a restaurant with friends, going to concerts, it just makes me do a double-take in my head — like, did we really live like that? I can’t imagine going back to doing many of those things in the same way ever again, no matter how COVID-19 progresses.
As cases continue to go back up in the United States, we’re watching the country make an untimely attempt to go back to normal in a variety of ways. The NBA, WNBA and MLB are planning to come back at the end of the month, and as a sports fan, this is exciting. However, with more and more athletes testing positive, I’m not optimistic about each sport reaching the end of their planned seasons. Also, some states made the decision to proceed with reopening procedures, only to learn the hard way that cases are going to continue to rise.
The worst aspect about trying to go back to life as we once knew it is how easily people choose to move on from the injustices that have occurred in the first half of this year. Mainstream news media outlets stopped covering protests after a certain point. Meanwhile, pictures have circled around social media of protestors in the streets with masks on, while restaurant-goers choose to eat outside together with no masks. What’s disappointing is that the purpose of the protests are not new. What does feel new, however, is the momentum that 2020 has created.
The murder of George Floyd was the boiling point and created a dynamic focus on what needed to be done to make a change. The protests have made a huge impact so far, as we have seen with people calling to defund and abolish the police. Also, the protests have inspired petitions to reopen the cases of murders of Black people in recent years, as we have seen with Elijah McClain. However, when it comes to individual work, many people are still left asking: what can I do to help?
As a Black woman, the most I can say to anyone that truly wants to enact change is to just watch and listen before action, Right now, no one wants to hold anyone’s hand through the process of explaining a history congested with racism at every corner.
With that in mind, there are plenty of layers to unfold. When it comes to exploring transgressions against a specific group of people — including sexism, homophobia, and transphobia — it takes quite an emotional toll on those doing the talking. For most people, if the experience could be avoided, they’d probably prefer it that way.
We have the internet and Google for a reason. As long as you continuously commit to listening, reading, watching, and holding yourself accountable, you’ll look less like a deer in the headlights. I’ve noticed that many of the biggest mistakes in the reactions to the murders of Black people this year were individuals and brands prioritizing reacting just to save face over truly listening to Black people.
The black squares on Instagram in early June is a good example of that.They were performative, but overall, counterproductive. The same can be said for when Democrats wore Kente cloth last month, too.
In both moments, the overall objective was lost.
2020 has lived up to more than the idea of just a vision. We’ve seen the world unfold into more of a disaster in front of our very own eyes. Within that, we’ve all been trying to connect to content that puts us at ease during this social distancing era, each show & each movie reminding us of what we had and the things we enjoyed doing months ago.
As the year goes on, I’m finding it more useless to try and connect with some of the things I cared about months ago. Overall, we should all aim to be better than we were months ago. For some, it’s taking care of ourselves and staying healthy. For others, it’s educating.
Honestly, it should be a mix of both.
Yes, there has to be a balance between what we consume to educate ourselves and the priority we place on our mental health. Reading is one thing, but repeatedly watching content that shows Black death has definitely taken a toll on me. It’s important to make the time for yourself to take in the information as well as the time to reconnect with yourself and find some peace.
To say this year has been uncomfortable is an understatement. How we continue moving forward is going to be more than that. However, if being uncomfortable means seeing who we really are, taking accountability of that, and eliminating the biases and blind spots that we have that harm others, then I’m all for it.
Just because we are still stuck in trying to define this new normal doesn’t mean we can’t make a continuous effort to be active in educating — and bettering — ourselves.
Isabelle Jocelyn is a writer and recent Ithaca College grad. You can follow her on Twitter here.
