That is an version of The Surprise Reader, a e-newsletter during which our editors suggest a set of tales to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Enroll right here to get it each Saturday morning.
The extra common one thing will get, the much less interesting it will possibly begin to really feel. Take The Pitt: Instantly, everybody’s watching it and everybody’s speaking about it. At a sure level, the joy begins to make you’re feeling such as you ought to be into it—and similar to that, you don’t wish to watch it anymore.
Anna Holmes calls this sense “hype aversion”—not fairly contrarianism, however a reflex towards being advised what to love, even not directly. Recognition, in any case, doesn’t simply sign high quality. It may possibly additionally really feel like strain. When one thing is in all places, opting out can begin to really feel like a approach to maintain on to your independence—to ensure your style remains to be your personal. What seems like lack of curiosity, Holmes suggests, may very well be one thing extra deliberate: not rejecting tradition, however resisting the “overidentification” with it.
So while you skip the present everybody loves, are you following your personal instincts, or pushing again towards the hype?
On Resisting the Hype
The Folks Who Shun Tremendous-In style Pop Tradition
By Anna Holmes
The Pitt, Severance, Sinners, you title it: For some cause, the extra hype one thing will get, the extra seemingly I’m to withstand it.
Why Does Watching TV Really feel Like Homework? (Simply Me?)
By Shirley Li
Binge-watching has change into a lifestyle, for higher or worse.
Your FOMO Is Making an attempt to Inform You One thing
By Religion Hill
Perhaps you are lacking out. (From 2025)
Nonetheless Curious?
Different Diversions
PS
My colleague Isabel Fattal just lately requested readers to share a photograph of one thing that sparks their sense of awe on the earth. “I noticed this on a cross-country bicycle journey in 2024. I used to be struck by the juxtaposition of the previous and future proper there on the aspect of the street. I may not have even seen it if I had zoomed by in a automotive,” David C. writes.
We’ll proceed to function your responses within the coming weeks.
— Rafaela
