The 'Logging' Industry: Why we feel a need to catalogue the media we consume
If a film was watched in a forest and no one was around to see it logged on Letterboxd, was it really watched?
For those of us whose main hobby revolves around media consumption, it can often be difficult to justify to those around us. Faced with the impressive glow of those who do competitive showjumping, rock-climbing or pottery, regular Monday night appointments at my local cinema hardly feels like a hobby. Hell, it hardly feels worthwhile. I have nothing tangible, like medals or art, to show from my interests (aside from being an absolute gun at trivia).
Except I do (sort of).
I have a Letterboxd account where I log every film I have ever watched. I have a Goodreads account where I list every book I read and subtly flex what a fast reader I am. I have a Discogs account to catalogue my record collection. I even have a Google Sheets page —tragic, I know— where I save every new album I listen to, colour coded to reflect my enjoyment. Only tv shows seem to escape my obsessive itemisation, maybe because logging five consecutive episodes of Desperate Housewives in a day is too sad, even for me. But there’s an app for that too now!
As excessive as this may seem, I’m clearly not alone. Goodreads and Letterboxd have thrived as platforms for people to catalogue their media consumption. TikTok is awash with people admitting to obsessively reviewing movies on Letterboxd as the credits roll, or lamenting the fact that spinning records won’t get them ‘scrobbles’ on last.fm, an app that records Spotify listens.
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This TikTok user knows the struggle: why can’t vinyl come with calculable data? What a waste. Courtesy of @heeheeval on TikTok.
Recently, my younger sister showed me her ‘film journal’ in which she scrapbooked her recent watches, certainly an aesthetic step-up from Letterboxd. ‘I’m so behind!’ she wailed, as though this was homework. One of the pages was an immaculately-presented tribute to The Shining (1980, dir. Stanley Kubrick), complete with collages of Shelley Duvall and a felt-tip REDRUM title. Only one thing was missing.
‘Do you remember if I liked that movie?’ she asked.
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A typical ‘film journal’ which has risen in popularity on TikTok, featuring the film Titanic (1997, dir. James Cameron). This video has 1.2 million views. Courtesy of @diariodachelse on TikTok.
Be it online or in a scrapbook, it is clear a growing number of people want to catalogue the media they consume. But where does this urge come from? I have some thoughts.
It’s practical. You can’t deny the fact it’s handy to have an archive of the exact worth of your vinyl collection, or a master doc of what albums you liked in a packed record store. Was this Kasey Musgraves album ‘country’ in a lame way or a subversive, strangely feminist The Chicks/Dolly Parton way? Which was that one singular U2 album that I kinda liked? And it’s nice to have a record of all the movies you’ve seen when your mum inevitably asks about ‘that movie we watched. Remember, with that actress?’
It’s rewarding. It’s exciting to see who your most watched actor of the year was in Letterboxd’s end of year stats (Nicole Kidman btw). Spotify has capitalised on this significantly; one day a year, Tidal and Apple Music users cower in fear and experience debilitating FOMO when Spotify Wrapped drops.
If you’re logging on a social platform, it lets you say: I’m better than you. However hypocritical and vapid this may seem, I do receive a certain thrill from the knowledge that my acquaintance from primary school is logging Colleen Hoover on Goodreads whereas I am reading Annie Ernaux and James Baldwin. See? I’m cultured. I watch French extremity films and Akira Kurosawa. I listen to jazz and actually like it.
It lets you say, I am doing something. Look how much I’ve watched, listened to, read. This is proof I’m not merely rotting in my room. I’m making progress. I’m learning. I’m getting smarter.
The gamification of media consumption is something that clearly has adverse effects; posturing online to impress friends is evidently getting in the way of truly enjoying art and recreational activities. Rachael Sigee of The Guardian additonally highlights the anxiety-inducing presence of ‘to watch’ or ‘to read’ lists often found on these apps.
‘What ought to be an enticing smörgåsbord of future entertainment begins to look like an impossible mountain to climb,’ she surmises.
It’s easy to boil this issue down to, ‘wow, Internet-addicted Gen Z can’t even crack a book without posting their every thought on social media.’
I choose to take a more optimistic view of this phenomenon; cultural consumption is inherently valuable, and so long as the individual is actively seeking to expand their horizons and challenge themselves, they’re bettering themselves. Even watching a movie for comfort or fun has value, and assigning importance to this culturally maligned past-time through the use of an app or journal is relatively harmless, so long as we don’t become data-obsessed.
We’re not screaming into the void. The art we consume and love matters to us, so it matters. Write about it and share it with the world, but spin a record for yourself every now and then.