Observing other people’s emotional reactions as they watch TV or social media videos is now a spectator sport in itself. Is it bad for our brains or does it help people feel connected?
Which did you enjoy more: watching the Lionesses win the Euros, or watching the crowds watching the Lionesses win? It’s an odd question, but “reaction videos” – watching people experience emotions as they watch other people doing things – have become a respectable genre of entertainment. It becomes a bit dizzying when you think about it: will we soon have reaction videos of people watching reaction videos? That nesting of images within themselves is called “mise en abyme” in French: placing in the abyss, which provokes a suitably existential shiver.
That is not to say I don’t enjoy the simple pleasure of watching kids discover and appreciate old white man music, Italian chefs condemn Jamie Oliver’s crimes against carbonara, or Malaysian comedians objecting violently to the BBC’s fried rice. I also appreciate the sterling work of Tegareacts, a TikTok sensation. (Can you say TikTok without “sensation”? It has become like “flaunting” and “curves”, I think.) Tega sublimates the most banal videos of cleaning hacks, recipes and the kind of obscure household products you get on shopping channels with pithy commentary. She approves them with her catchphrase “continue”, or occasionally condemns with a firm “discontinue this activity”. My favourite is some lethal-looking mountain biking, of which she, delightfully, says, “the mass is not mass-ing, the gravity is not gravity-ing”, neatly summarising my objections to extreme sport.
