I wonder how long until the cycle comes full circle, and Youtubers are co-opted as subtle spinmakers for political ends. I wonder if it's already happening or already happened.
I feel like that's actually a more terrifying prospect than the fact that the younger generation doesn't watch TV news. You can mock, bash, and discredit TV news with facts and "honesty", and that's exactly what happened. But if your trusted source of news and political ideas is visceral comedy and memetic entertainment trends, that's almost immune to rational debate, since anything and everything can be dismissed as a joke.
I can imagine a future where politicians are elected on the basis of a lulzy hashtag, and that scares me way more than what we have now.
I feel like that's actually a more terrifying prospect than the fact that the younger generation doesn't watch TV news. You can mock, bash, and discredit TV news with facts and "honesty", and that's exactly what happened. But if your trusted source of news and political ideas is visceral comedy and memetic entertainment trends, that's almost immune to rational debate, since anything and everything can be dismissed as a joke.
I can imagine a future where politicians are elected on the basis of a lulzy hashtag, and that scares me way more than what we have now.