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Did the Media Literacy Factory Explode?

6/7/2026

Spoilers for Backrooms

I recently made a mistake, one I’m sure we’ve all made.

I haven’t really used Instagram regularly for a long time – I mainly keep an account because it’s the main way people share information about local events, but I don’t keep the app on my phone, and just occasionally check it on my computer. However, I recently redownloaded the app in order to message somebody, because I knew I wouldn’t see the reply if I only had it on my computer because I so rarely open it on there. But that was over a week ago, and the app remained until just now, I re-deleted it right before opening this blank file.

I got caught into scrolling again, laying in bed swiping through Reels. Which some of it hasn’t been bad! I’ve been doing a lot of collage and journalling lately, so I did come across some good videos and got some good ideas, once I sifted through all the ads and the art content that was centralized around more things to buy. And I got overwhelmed by the sustainability creators, who told me all the things I need to radically change about my lifestyle to be a less terrible person – that’s a separate thing, and a feeling of guilt and overwhelm that I am discussing in therapy, and as I work to declutter. But I also had to pass by quite a few Reels posted about the media of the day; the movies and shows that are getting the most buzz right now, and that creators are profiting off of by pooping out the same inane videos about.

There’s a person in front of a green screen holding a tiny corded microphone “explaining” all the things I missed in Backrooms. Vertical podcast highlight clips of a man telling their cohost about this “crazy conspiracy theory” they heard about the film. AI voiceovers on top of clips of the movie people filmed in the theater, and listicals about the popular YouTube creators who are now entering the film industry to “surprising success!”

There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes videos too, from official accounts and from crew members too, which is cool, but also coming to my feed in droves, seemingly unprompted? The big three right now are I Love Boosters, Backrooms, and Obsession. Which I have now seen all three. Initially, I had seen a teaser and heard the original premise about Obsession, and didn’t really have any interest, as it felt so similar to all the other mediocre modern (usually A24 or A24-adjacent) horror that’s been coming out lately, like Alex Garland’s Men, Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs and The Monkey, and Zach Cregger’s Barbarian. A lot of these filmmakers seem to have a strong comedy background, as I just saw that that’s where Cregger go this start too. These films, similarly to the work of filmmakers like Emerald Fennell, focus on a lot of shock, social media buzz, and being able to generate strong reactions from audiences that lead to a lot of discussion about them. And I don’t know, I just have been sort of disappointed by them! I hear all this talk about how “crazy, shocking, and groundbreaking” these films are, and then they completely miss the mark! I had waited a long time to finally see Longlegs, and I just did not understand the hype once I did – Cage’s performance had seemed to be the main draw, and then it was so small in the film, the reveals and twists didn’t make much logical sense, and felt just forced in to allow for “shocking scenes” that were unearned. A lot of these films have capitalized on the iconography of key eccentric characters, much like how all I ever saw online about Weapons was just about Aunt Gladys, when she was such a small part of the film as a whole.

But anyway. I have been seeing some things hyping up Obsession, which I don’t necessarily understand, but majority of the “analysis” and conspiracy content I’ve come across is centered around Backrooms. I enjoyed Backrooms! I thought it looked great, and I think it captured the feeling that drew everyone in to the original idea really well. I was not expecting as much with the plot as the film took on, and that was a pleasant surprise, the direction they took with the characters was very fun to watch, especially Clark, of course. The horror aspect of things was a bit lacking, and I think some things could have been better hinted-at or explained, but overall an amazing achievement for Kane Parsons!

But some of these people online are making me lose my fucking mind.

The first one I saw was the theory that Pirate Clark is actually the real Clark who entered the Backrooms, and that the normal-looking Clark that we see at the end of the film is actually the Clark that was created by the Backrooms. What. I keep seeing people bring this up for shock value, but very minimally explain the theory. For example, I haven’t seen anyone mention how they think this change happened – like how would he have changed so much in his physical form? There was zero indication that that was something that the Backrooms could do. In my opinion, the idea that Pirate Clark is a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, a boiled-down version of Clark from his own image of himself, how others see him, and his legacy, makes plenty of sense, that he is a sort of shadow self that represents Clark’s insecurities and fears about himself. Is that not sufficient?

Several podcast clips consisted of interactions along the line of:

What. Is the point. Some videos discussing the movie draw attention to real details and make connections that people may not have caught, but even when they have some form of validity, they are so focused around creating content, something to profit off of. Once the hype has died down, so will the analysis and theories. I’ve caught myself way too many times having my opinion swayed by critiques and opinions conveyed online by other people, which only manipulates your experience with the piece of media. I have to trust my intuition, and give myself time to think on it myself, instead of immediately jumping to check what the proper opinion is, and what theories I’m supposed to believe.

How does the theory about Clark having killed his wife impact my experience with the film? I’m found recently that facts about the creation of a film impact my opinion far more: learning about how the sets were created and Mark Duplass coming online to talk about how well Parsons did with the direction of the film without extra help and handholding. I recently saw William Friedkin’s Sorcerer for the first time at a special screening, where the host gave us a lot of context and trivia about the film before and after the screening. Knowing how insane that team had to be to pull it off and make it look as good as it did, and hearing what they went through to create it gave me immense appreciation for the film. All that crazy shit, and actors largely doing the stunts themselves? Friedkin calling in an arsonist from Queens named Marvin the Torch to help pull off one of the explosions? The politics between Friedkin and the studio? Insane. Fascinating.

You could sit for hours looking at conspiracies, icebergs, and lore videos about popular media, but personally, it just feels so hollow and lifeless sometimes, like an easy cop-out to produce a video.

I don’t know how true this is, but I saw some posts about how people have said I Love Boosters is strange, and unnecessarily chaotic, as if all of the choices Boots Riley made were not purposeful. Making it sound like the film has nothing to say. Which I have feelings about the messaging of the film, it feels strange to see a movie that strongly conveys communistic and pro-union sentiments, but to watch it in an AMC theater. The messaging feels a little ham-fisted at points, but also probably something important for people to see if they aren’t already exposed to those concepts on a regular basis. I felt very similarly about the Barbie movie, though to a lesser extent. People kept talking about how feminist and how groundbreaking it was, but it felt very shallow and basic surface-level for the acclaim it was receiving – but that just means it wasn’t for me, it needed to reach audiences who hadn’t gotten there yet. Boosters feels more like it’s supposed to be for me, but I don’t think I can imagine seeing a theatrical release and feeling truly “seen” by it. A filmmaker reaching such a high standing in the industry, getting so many big stars attached to his film, and a sizeable theatrical release, it just feels off. Even if he had to do a lot of his own marketing, and milk social media buzz and novelty, I don’t know, it feels strange. But I don’t know if we’ll have media releases that won’t cause people to make quirky joke TikToks capitalizing off of buzzworthy film sequences. There will always be a Jimmy Fallon bit for every trending film, an SNL reference or Halloween costume trends. Which – I’ve also been reminded lately, both from scrolling Reels, and talking to some millenials in my life, that people still watch SNL, which is crazy to me. If you really want the Backrooms feeling and critique of nostalgia and AI, where everything gets boiled down to a flanderized copy of a copy of a copy of a copy as it gradually works its way down, that’s it. Have they made any 6 7 jokes on there yet? Don’t tell me, actually.

Do I need to just avoid online media commentary and critique entirely? How do you sift out meaningful analysis from derivative slop? Does it even matter, if all of it is just going to manipulate your opinion?