The Bubble

I watched a movie recently, The Bubble, which I don’t really recommend. However, I did have a strong reaction to this insertion of TikToks and TikTok personalities into the movie. It felt forced, it felt irrelevant. It was also, for lack of a better word, stupid. This was displayed over and over again by it distracting the cast completely from the actual reality of their situation. In one pivotal moment, the cast oooo’s over a TikTok video of a baby monkey while their lives are in mortal danger. It isn’t until they almost crash do they take their eyes off the video.

Don’t get me wrong, I did my fair share of TikTok-ing for an entire month at the start of the pandemic. It seemed to shine a bright light into a rather foggy reality. But as the fog lifts and reality begins to shine rather harshly, our society is still choosing the distracting laser light over the actual sun. I can’t help but wonder whether TikTok’s main purpose is to distract us from ever standing up to anything. Here we are two years after the pandemic, moving into an endemic and wishing things to go back to ‘normal’.

We are at a point in history where the supposed peace of the western world is starting to deteriorate. Narcissistic leaders are allowed to take over countries while only receiving ‘smacks on the hand’. People are starving. Racism runs our society. Pieces of the ice shelf are breaking off. Individuals can’t take a joke or laugh at themselves. And everything else that isn’t listed here. Yet, what do we choose to do about it? Watch a monkey in a bath on repeat.