Finding high-quality entertainment can be tough, because from social media to big-budget streaming platforms, we are forced to sift through slop content.
Right now I have an unlimited supply of content at my fingertips; I’m subscribed to a few streaming services, full of more programming than I could possibly watch in my mortal lifespan. I have a backlog of games piled up on my PC and a stack of unread books, and I’ve also fallen behind on my hobbies. It feels impossible to catch up, especially since there’s a constant flow of new stuff, all designed to be as easily consumed as possible. This is the slop era of entertainment, where quality has been sacrificed and quantity is king.
These days, the term “slop” covers a wide range of media, from TikToks where an AI narrates a post from /r/AmITheAsshole all the way up to big Disney productions like The Acolyte. That’s a wide range, but it makes sense when you consider that slop refers to content that is meant to be consumed, not examined, critiqued, or unpacked. This includes the “no thoughts, head empty” ritual of lying in bed, staring blankly at an endless stream of short videos as your thumb occasionally twitches like a rat hitting the button for its dopamine snack.
But slop also refers to corporate ventures, even ones where many of the individual artists and creators involved may have had noble intentions. Consider the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its endless stream of shows, dropped plot points originally teased in post-credits stingers, and a constant string of Member Berries to previous, more popular iterations of the same franchise. Slop slides off your brain, even as you watch it. Slop rejects deeper thoughts or attempts at interpretation, going for the easiest payoffs. Much like jingling keys in front of an infant, slop can have a certain amount of spectacle or excitement, but any rough edges have been sawn off.
