Trendsspeaking topic
Existential risk as entertainment, why millions of people relax by watching animated videos about human extinction and the death of the universe.
— YouTube (Kurzgesagt existential themes)
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- We've never been this 'connected' and never felt this lonely. Is technology the cure for loneliness, or the thing that packages it nicely and sells it back to us?
- If a video doesn't hook us in ten seconds, we skip it. Does this impatience make content worse, or did creators condition us to expect the hook as they learned to deliver it? Did demand corrupt supply, or supply corrupt demand?
- Why does 'handmade' or 'artisanal' add so much value to a thing? Are we looking for authenticity in human labor, or has escaping mass production itself become a new consumer fashion?
- Is choosing an aesthetic self-expression, or picking a ready-made category and settling into it? Is there still a real difference between being original and being a recognizable 'type'?
- Studies show online communities reduce loneliness among the elderly. So is the internet the cause of loneliness, or its cure when used right? Maybe the problem isn't the tool but how we use it.