Here's a hot take I'm tired of: while you were busy watching _____. Did you know such and such was happening?
This trash hot take is usually offered by that overly "woke" person you know trying to overcompensate for their own deficiencies. News flash: neither Bird Box nor Surviving R Kelly changed how people lived their lives. This take is garbage for a few reasons.
1) It's possible to do more than one thing at a time. Most movies are two hours. Most docuseries run 4 to 6 hours. Most books, depending on the length, can be read in a few hours. Watching a movie/docuseries or reading a book doesn't constitute a huge distraction for most people. I watched Bird Box. I didn't watch Surviving R Kelly. Neither of those choices altered the trajectory of my life.
2) Just because something is trending on social media doesn't mean it's truly captured the nation's attention. Most trends, good and/or bad, are caused by an enthusiastic group of people tweeting, subtweeting or retweeting the topic over and over. Once a topic trends on Twitter, people on Facebook figure out they should be part of the craze. This still doesn't constitute a massive distraction.
3) It's pseudo-elitist. The underlying sentiment is that the person offering this viewpoint should be setting the agenda for the things we think and talk about. This doesn't mean the issue(s) they are attempting to highlight isn't worthy of thought or discussion, but it does assume they are the only ones thinking about or discussing said topic.
4) It's counterculture virtue signaling. Nothing says I'm trying my hardest not to be like the rest of society than someone waving a flag and pointing out the fact that they didn't participate in a thing that has gained a certain amount of notoriety. You have every right not to get caught up in the moment, but beating people over the head with the fact that you didn't get caught up is just as annoying as being caught up.
