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So there's the phenomenon of "hate watching," where people watch a movie or show they know they'll hate, looking for things to be offended by and get angry about. But is there a term for the similar phenomenon of people watching a movie or show they know they'll hate… because it's popular with others, and thus they're afraid of social consequences for not watching?
It's not quite "peer pressure," it's not exactly "fear of missing out." More a "fear of not fitting in." This sort of media consumption habit is usually associated with teenagers (particularly teen girls), but I've also encountered it occasionally with conservative Christian commentators. The sort who will complain about how everything Hollywood makes ranges from leftist propaganda to Satanic filth, and yet watch every popular new release; and when asked if they hate it so much, why don't they just stop watching, find the idea of not being * au courant* with pop culture horrifying, because then what will people who aren't fellow conservative Christians think? (What if your liberal coworkers are discussing the latest episode of Euphoria, and they ask you what you thought? You can't just tell them you didn't watch it' or worse, that you don't watch TV at all. How can you establish yourself as a fellow smart, cultured intellectual, and not get dismissed as an ignorant Bible-thumping hick (like all the ignorant Bible-thumping hicks back home that you worked so hard to escape) if you don't force yourself to watch multiple episodes of Transparent?)
I see it happening too. I started noticing it 10 years ago, actually, and it just got worse since.
I do not know any words for it, but I can describe the phenomenon a bit more:
People used to ignore things they didn't like, and engage with what they liked.
Then they started sharing some of the worst stuff they found, to "spread awareness" of it.
Then they started sharing things which made them sad or angry, because they wanted to share their feelings.
Then people started sharings things that they didn't like, in order to signal hate for it: "Look how stupid this is!"
Then people started engaging with content that they hate, but "ironically". This ties into things like "Shitposting", "Cringe compilations", Lolcows, and other things that seem to correlate with traits that I dislike (nihilism, vulgarity, apathy, mockery, shock humor). If you see somebody "ironically" listening to the National Anthem of the USSR, or "ironically" modding Shrek into videogames, you will recognize these tendencies in them.
I think this change correlates to what we all "brainrot". More psychologically healthy people seem better at ignoring or avoiding that which is unpleasant and to threat it as if it does not exist, rather than to engage with it (and thus fuel it!) or even feel an urge to do so. Healthy people also seem to have a lower tolerance for disgusting things, and to find things disgusting more easily.
And algorithms of the past tended to fulfill positive needs (humor, curiousity, cuteness, awe, creation, community), but now many negative things are included as well, for instance material which makes ones enemies look bad, material which affirms ones beliefs, all kinds of "relatable" content, and even content in which something successful is borrowed in order to promote something which has failed (for instance, modifying a video of a famous person to talk as if he shared your frustrations, or drawing a high-status girl saying something vulgar and low-status. People who cannot create something of value tend to take other peoples creations and to modify them). Two more related ideas are "don't feel the troll" (an old warning against engaging) and "drama" (the result of engaging in troublesome matters, rather than ignoring, or blocking/muting that or those which annoy you)
Whatever the origins of reality TV and celebrity gossip and other "trashy" instances of social dynamics are, I'm fairly sure they're mechanically related to this phenomenon.
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