I feel like there’s a lot of “complain and someone else will fix it” in the world today which wasn’t there (or even permissible) when I was growing up. It has, in fact, permeated every aspect of society including music gear forums and I fear that it leaves us vulnerable because as the curtain drops people will be actively tik-tok’ing about how they don’t like the dark but then, at that point, it will already be too late.
Without taking this in a political direction (so that we can have a proper discussion), does this seem to be the case to you as well or am I just projecting?
Not sure how much it’s increased, but it’s certainly something I’m acutely aware of. Maybe call it “entitlement” to be more succinct. (Or am I assuming too much ?).
EDIT: I think perhaps in the UK it’s always been around.
The people who broke the social contract keep pretending there’s still a social contract.
Then they find someone else to blame for the problems resulting from the breaking of the social contract.
So people carry on expecting the social contract to be kept, and carry on waiting impatiently for them to come and fix it, even though we all know deep down the cavalry have all been made redundant.
Not exactly what you’re talking about, but like half of my new job is telling people “this isn’t my team’s problem, it’s yours.” And then there’s a 50% chance it becomes my problem anyway.
Short answer: yes, it seems to be the case, no I don’t think you are projecting.
TLDR:
I think we’ve been collapsing toward this space for a long time, but the elbow of the acceleration has coincided with the rise of algorithm-driven digital media and the ubiquity of digital (mis)information.
This wash of information and dopamine-driven models of engagement have led to both a serious breakdown in attention-spans and a desperate desire for many to follow the guidance of whatever “influencer” is spewing nonsense on any given platform.
In the context of algorithmically-delivered media, the classic “keeping-up-with-the-Jones’s” approach to advertising being supercharged on its own is bad enough. Purveyors of algorithms honestly couldn’t give a fuck though what the content being delivered actually is, they care only that we doom scroll as much as possible, and click into paid content. Our feeds evolve individually to exploit our weaknesses, because that’s how the algorithm gets its hooks into us. Grievance and a sense of being wronged - be it by a product or other social group - appears to fall high on the list of emotional triggers that keep us glued. Bad news is the winner, and fear is valuable currency.
It’s no surprise that pointing out how we’ve been wronged or where shortcomings may be in the world around us should line up front and center in this model of engagement. Combine this again with the erosion of attention, and here we are, believing ourselves to be wronged by products, with someone else responsible for fixing it.
I didn’t want to say it in the opening post but I also feel like the virtual “soapbox with anonymity” of the internet has also pushed it in this direction.
Complain without repercussions and people will mindlessly agree (never mind this thread though).
Are you sure it’s not just that our screams into the void are now archived in perpetuity. I seem to remember quite a bit of mild cursing from my dad (‘sugar!’) when I was forced to help him around the house. I think humans have always been complainers, you (and me) just willingly hang out in the complaint department.
I’m not suggesting that people didn’t complain, but I think that the mentality at present is that the more you dislike something and the louder you complain, the more effective your complaints are, but it’s simply the expectation that someone will get you out of the stuck elevator without ever contacting anyone for help simply because you’re in there complaining is the sort of image that I get (when observing the world at present).
Like complaints are a form of ethereal magic or alchemy which by reciting the incantation will transmute anger into resolutions.
This extends out to people asking for assistance with stuff too. In a few areas of interest for me, I’ll often respond to ‘what is this’ type questions by doing a bit of research, answering the question and then writing a few words about the resources I used and how to go about answering the question themselves next time, and 4/5 times I won’t even get a response.
Bringing this relevant to music production - I feel like there’s a lot of complaining about what devices “can’t” do versus what they “can” do. As a result, commenters tend to put it back on developers to come up with an “update” to their devices that meets the needs of a specific commenter.
Instead of relying on developers to come up with a solution specific to a person’s beat making needs; learn to work with the limitations and get on with it…
This which you’ve mentioned is actually what incited the line of thinking on display here, but it quickly branched out to the world at large as opposed to simply hardware / software music devices. But yes, I agree with that as well.
One particular thing about this winds me up: that these features get “demanded” more than requested (“How can anything be called a sampler in 2025 if it’s missing feature X”)
Entitlement. Again. Sorry.
EDIT: Have I complained enough yet ? Will somebody please fix this ?
I think the tendency to complain instead of doing something is age-old, but it has accelerated in recent years, as people spend more time online and have more of their interactions online, including many parasocial relationships. Not only is there more of an illusion of amplification (“all my followers will see this and take it deeply to heart!”) but increasingly, the ways to fix things do in fact involve a fair amount of online work. Anonymity and weaker online social ties also encourage this trend. But it is not new. I was a regular reader of the USENET newsgroup soc.culture.china when Tiananmen Square happened in 1989 (thanks to a seven-week visit in 1987, with my then-wife who had taught English in the country 1983-85), and it was completely overwhelmed by a lot of expat Chinese basically crying out in anguish. Sometimes people just need to vent.
