Watching Just Because Other People Are

One of the absurdities of contemporary pop culture is just how much time and money people spend consuming stuff they don't like. In contrast with those who, for example, find their food choices limited by their financial means, health needs or personal values, and so eat what they do not like because they must eat to live, in spite of no comparable compulsion people "hate watch." Or they watch because their partner wants to watch and does not want to watch alone (even though it's just TV and not the movies). Or because they want to be "part of a conversation," even though they have no material incentive whatsoever to bother, not being journalists or scholars with an intellectual interest in the matter, or professional critics paid to do so.

Personally I find life too short for such stupidities.