I get it. You want to talk about that show you just watched.
The one where a major character died. Or someone got engaged. Or one person was unmasked as another person. Or an alien. Or a sentient washing machine.
And you are quite plainly free to discuss these events in whatever social media feed you possess. It’s your social media frequency channel and you can broadcast anything you want on that signal. You can tweet pictures of monkeys drinking their own urine. You can post Facebook updates about that genital rash that won’t clear up. It’s your digital yard. You can trim the hedges into whatever shape warms your heart and I can’t make you do different.
I can, however, choose to not walk by your yard.
I can unfriend you on Facebook. I can unfollow you on Twitter.
That’s more my responsibility than it is yours, I understand that.
Just the same —
I’d like to talk to you a little bit about spoilers not in an effort to beat you about the head and neck with my opinion but rather to at least try to get you to understand where I’m coming from. See, where I’m coming from is, spoilers kinda suck. They trouble me. They trouble me both as an audience member and as a storyteller myself.
A storyteller concocts a story in a certain way. Anybody who tells stories is familiar with this — you want to create a certain rise and fall of plot, you want to escalate tensions and then give some breathing room, and at a great many of the narrative peaks are tentpole moments. Moments of character that seriously complicate or compromise the plot. Characters dying. Secrets exposed. New steps taken. Old enemies reborn. And we orchestrate these moments almost like we’re writing music. We’re trying to build to various crescendos and not just make a cacophony.
The problem is, were you to isolate that singular moment of musical crescendo, it’s not particularly interesting. It’s just a blurt of noise, a sudden spike of sound.
Spoilers are kinda like that. When you extract these impactful narrative moments and isolate them — and then broadcast them — you’re really just transmitting a weird, context-free spike of sound. It’s not that the story is ruined, exactly, but you’ve robbed some of the potency from it. You’ve stolen urgency and thieved surprise. It’s not the same thing as announcing who won an Oscar or who lost the sportsball game — those are data points not dissimilar from noting the temperature outside or the color of the sky at noon. But when you grab these crucial narrative events and spoil them, you’re reducing them down to being just data points. SCOOBY DOO IS DEAD. DOCTOR WHO IS PREGNANT. BRUCE WILLIS WAS ACTUALLY THE STATUE OF LIBERTY FROM PLANET OF THE APES THE WHOLE TIME.
It’s like you just told a punchline without letting people hear the joke, first.
See, storytellers spend a lot of time trying to claw and climb to these narrative moments — and the audience spends a lot of time going along for the ride.
Spoilers short-circuit that. They rearrange how I experience narrative.
Which is cool, if that’s what I want as an audience member, and if that’s how the storyteller has designed the architecture. But if it’s just what you want, Mister Spoilertrousers, then you’ve gone ahead and forcibly changed my experience of the story. And that sucks a little bit.
And here’s where someone says, “You don’t like spoilers, stay off of social media.” And that sounds fair on first blush, but it doesn’t really change the fact that inconsiderate is still inconsiderate. You are likely broadcasting this stuff to a whole lot of people who aren’t yet aware of it. The Walking Dead — easily the most spoiled show, and one so spoiled for me now I’m not even sure I’m going to watch it anymore — airs later because of the time difference, but those who watched it on the East Coast feed were spoiling the shit out of it as the thing aired. It’s not like you’re asked to hold spoilers for weeks — but, you know, you might at least wait 24 hours till some folks have caught up? At least until people have watched it live?
I get it. You want to spoil it. And again: you’re allowed to. But that doesn’t make it particularly nice. And it’s not nice to say, well, just stay off Twitter, then. I’d rather you not blow cigarette smoke in my kid’s face or take a shit in the public pool, but nobody would ever say, YOU DON’T LIKE POOP, DON’T SWIM IN THE PUBLIC POOL, PAL.
It’s funny. The type of audience seems to have an impact on this. The audience for Breaking Bad seemed protective of spoilers — hell, they still are. But The Walking Dead or Doctor Who seems to draw far more spoilers without regard or consideration of those who maybe haven’t seen it. People seem to be more protective of spoiling the experience in films than they are television — and take even greater care with books. I know part of this comes down to the “second screen experience” that television seems so keen to push, but certainly you have ways to talk about the experience without spoiling it to a very large, potentially public audience? Google+ allows for limited broadcast. Or there exist forums or second-screen apps or direct messages or blogs or email or… you know, good old-fashioned “go watch the show with human beings and then talk about it over a slice of pie.” Hell, even a Facebook update with HOLY FUCK WE’RE GONNA TALK SPOILERS HERE AWOOGA AWOOGA at least tells me at least to stay away from the comments.
But spoilers come fast and furious. No warnings. Sometimes as graphical memes. Sometimes just as a single line: YOU GUYS I CAN’T BELIEVE THE DOCTOR JUST REGENERATED AS A PERSNICKETY POSSUM IN A BOWLER HAT AND A HOUNDSTOOTH JACKET.
The other thing is, I don’t know what the value proposition is for spoilers. It’s like, for the people who already watched the show — well, you announcing OMG PAPA SMURF GOT SHOT isn’t a surprise nor is it in any way insightful. You’re announcing something they already know. And for the people who didn’t watch it — well, now you just ruined it for them. What do spoilers earn you, exactly? What do you get out of it? Serious question.
I dunno.
Can you spoil stuff? Sure. Should you? Well, that’s on you. But I’d rather you didn’t. Just as I’d rather you not open my Christmas presents and tell me what’s in ’em before I get there. Just as none of us like those movie trailers that seem to give the whole movie away in two minutes and thirty seconds. Just as you’d probably rather not have me time travel to an hour before you watch a show so I can spoil it for you.
I won’t come to your house and tell you the endings of all your unread books.
And you don’t broadcast spoilers to people who haven’t yet caught up within a reasonable time.
Just try to think about the experiences of other people.
Deal?
***
(I know a lot of this is first-world problem bullshit. I know starving kids in third-world countries aren’t like, “Sure, I’d like some potable water and fresh food, but sure, I’ll listen to how you got spoiled on The Walking Dead last night first, because that sounds totally important, too.” So, you can take all this with a grain of salt. Just the same, as a storyteller with some skin in the game, I thought I’d talk about it. Feel free to toss thoughts in comments. Play nice.)
marlanesque says:
I wish I had this rant to post on Facebook last week. I was too angry to do anything else besides pound the keyboard with bloody stumps for fingers and scream gibberish at my screen. Needless to say, I had to unfollow a few friends.
Spoilers are the herpes of the internet.
December 2, 2013 — 1:19 PM
mirymom says:
Inconsiderate is the key word. The world would be a much lovelier place in general if more people just had more consideration for others. Nice post, Chuck.
December 2, 2013 — 1:19 PM
Paul Baxter says:
I should probably not mention the sekrit of the upcoming Breaking Bad Christmas special, then; the one where Walter White makes festive peppermint-scented red and green meth.
BECAUSE IGNORE THAT IT’S NOT REALLY GONNA HAPPEN OH I AM SO SCREWED FOR GIVNG THAT AWAY.
December 2, 2013 — 1:23 PM
ardenrr says:
Sharing this immediately! The Walking Dead was the first time this really became an issue for me. I’m one to post things such as ‘OMG! I can’t believe that just happened!’ or, in reference to last night, ‘Well now I’m just fucking sad as fuck! #twd’. However, right after I posted that, a friend of mine posted this:
‘NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NAME OF PERSON WHO DIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’
Even though I’d already seen it, I still hid her from my timeline. It is rare I watch a show live so who knows what stupid shit she could ruin for me every day. She’s now dead to me.
#firstworldproblems
December 2, 2013 — 1:26 PM
terribleminds says:
TWD seems to be one of the worst offenders for this kinda spoiler-crowd. I’ve rarely had an episode go by unspoiled. Which — along with the show’s ceaseless grimness — is one of the reasons I’m deleting my DVR schedule and saying goodbye to the show for now.
— c.
December 2, 2013 — 1:37 PM
ardenrr says:
That sucks, all because of some douche clowns who couldn’t keep their mouths shut.
It is strange what you said about Breaking Bad fans not being a part of the above referenced douche clowns. I’m only on Season 2 and I have yet to have anything spoiled for me. Interesting…
December 2, 2013 — 1:39 PM
jim heskett says:
that would be a shame, because the writing on the show has gotten much better this season. Characters actually speak with some subtext, instead of just saying exactly what they’re thinking all the time
December 2, 2013 — 2:02 PM
Barry Napier says:
Brilliant post. I remember the first time I fell victim to spoilers. I was really young and full of nager about everything so when (X Files SPOILER ALERT!!!!!) a friend of mine told me that Mulder apparently killed himself the day after I missed the episode but was looking forward to watching it later than afternoon on a recorded tape (remember those?!), I was fuming the rest of the day. Sort of sad how casual spoilers have become, especially since the olden times of VHS recording.
December 2, 2013 — 1:27 PM
Lindsey Bonner says:
Agreed. I accidentally ruined a movie for my husband and felt awful. Taking a few moments to think of others happiness would improve things for everyone. I have a young kid and don’t always get to watch things on the same time frame as other folks. It would be nice to not have that magic robbed away because some folks have nothing to do with themselves but ruin it for others.
December 2, 2013 — 1:30 PM
eviljwinter says:
Hey, Chuck! Did you read The Bible? Awesome book, man! I can’t believe the Devil did it.
December 2, 2013 — 1:30 PM
Mia Marshall says:
This west coaster thanks you heartily for this. I get tired of being told that I should just stay off Twitter every night from 6-10pm or so, until the show I want to watch has finally aired in California. Twitter is a freaking RIGHT, dude.
When I hear someone tell me to stop whining, all I hear is “My desire to watch this show and talk about it immediately is more important than your desire to watch the show unspoiled, and I feel free to impose restrictions on your social media use that I don’t have to follow.” At which point I mutter something about an entitled assclown and click ‘unfollow.’
December 2, 2013 — 1:32 PM
Kay Camden says:
Gotta ask: did a specific incident prompt you to write this? If so, can you share without spoiling? Just curious…
December 2, 2013 — 1:33 PM
terribleminds says:
The Walking Dead mid-season finale was spoiled up and down the pike for me.
December 2, 2013 — 1:34 PM
Gruud says:
Yep, for me too, and I just got around to watching it last night. What a bummer to already know. Also, I don’t have HBO (is it?) so am still breathlessly waiting for the GoT season three DVD’s to drop. Luckily I have fairly limited social interactions, and twitter is well over it by now. (I started twitter after the season ended). Score one for the writing life eh?
December 3, 2013 — 4:22 PM
Jon Chaisson says:
I’ll be honest, spoilers never really bothered me either way–I distinctly remember a time in my college years (way back in 1993 BI (Before Internet)) when someone leaked out the shocking reveal in The Crying Game before I went to see it. I think that was the point when I realized my reaction to spoilers isn’t so much the spoilage as it instead made me think “ooh, now I’m curious as to how the story GOT to that point!” and made me want to see it more. Maybe I’m just weird that way.
Granted, I rarely watch TV so show spoilers do little to me anyway, but I get where you’re coming from. Fans have reactions to their favorite shows, movies, music, books, etc, and thanks to The Intertoobs we all have the eSoapBox™ in which we can (and often do) bleat our excitement. disillusionment, frustration, or shock to all and sundry, regardless as to how it affects the rest of us. Sometimes it’s insightful, sometimes it’s just blather, often it’s OMG THE FEELS. You do what you can to mute it if you don’t want to hear it, I guess.
December 2, 2013 — 1:36 PM
terribleminds says:
“I think that was the point when I realized my reaction to spoilers isn’t so much the spoilage as it instead made me think “ooh, now I’m curious as to how the story GOT to that point!” and made me want to see it more. Maybe I’m just weird that way.”
I’ve had spoilers do that for me, but that’s something I’d rather leave for the storyteller to decide — meaning, the storyteller may open a story with a character’s death or some other event and we can thus build to how that happens.
— c.
December 2, 2013 — 1:38 PM
Jon Chaisson says:
That makes sense too. Sometimes you’d just like to be surprised by your birthday present and not have your bratty kid brother tell you what it is before you unwrap it. 😉
December 2, 2013 — 1:49 PM
Pat says:
Once again, Hoss, you are my hero! The world is better for having you in it!
December 2, 2013 — 1:40 PM
mikes75 says:
Honest question, but is it even possible to spoil The Walking Dead anymore? With Talking Dead, who’s key features are an In Memoriam to the key deaths of that episode and a Kill of the Week crowning the coolest splatter effect, it’s felt like the dramatics are far behind Greg Nicotero’s work on the list of priorities.
December 2, 2013 — 1:42 PM
terribleminds says:
Well, for me it’s a show that’s very much about Death, and so character deaths are a big deal for the show. (Maybe TOO big a deal for the show?) So, robbing those moments is robbing the show of some of its most crucial thematic beats. IMHO, YMMV, etc.
December 2, 2013 — 1:44 PM
Luna (@lunamoth42) says:
Agreed on all counts. Am I supposed to just stay off social media JUST IN CASE someone in my circle decides to casually say “so they ___ed that character ___ on ____” just totally without context? Not a review, not a discussion. Just BLAH there’s words strung together that have the effect of spoiling the ending of a show you didn’t even KNOW was on TV last night because you don’t have cable. Enjoy!
Walking Dead was spoiled for me too just minutes before you mentioned it this morning, Chuck.
December 2, 2013 — 1:44 PM
Ashley says:
I take spoilers very seriously. I even take it so far as to apply it to music. For Example, just yesterday I went to the Straight No Chaser: Under the Influence tour concert (GREAT A Capella band btw). They (as any group of youtube does) were slowly releasing some of their songs from this album on youtube as the concert date came closer. I REFUSED to listen to any of them because I didn’t want it to be spoiled before the concert because I wanted the songs to be NEW to me, not old. That’s kind of the point of going to a concert isn’t it? And honestly, I really glad I did this because the concert was all that much more awesome because I didn’t know ANY of the new songs they preformed and didn’t have a clue what trick they were going to pull next. It was amazing.
This is the exact reason why, if I am going to post something specific about a tv show I just watched that just recently aired (which I don’t even do that very often) I’ll say SPOILER ALERT! and use a few spaces so that the actual spoiler content gets put under the ‘….see more’ that Facebook does for long statuses. If you want to post about something that just happened, fine. But PLEASE at least be considerate enough to say SPOILER ALERT so people know to stay away!
December 2, 2013 — 1:44 PM
Jodi says:
I force myself to stay away from the Twitter until I’ve caught up, just for this reason. And, still, last nights Walking Dead was spoiled for me because of Norma Reedus’ post on Instagram. Well, not his post but the 1100 comments beneath it. By fans.
I don’t read the last page of a book to see if all the characters survive, because i want to root for their survival as they’re crawling through the muck trying to save themselves. it’s the hope that lies in the crawl to safety that keeps you reading/watching and spoilers rob that from the audience.
December 2, 2013 — 1:55 PM
Andy says:
Very much so! I try and do this, although I also fail a bit sometimes.
I will say that there’s a very likely reason for people gushing about spoilers: it’s a form of emoting. They’re re-expressing their surprise and (possibly) delight and general “THAT JUST HAPPENED” all in one bundle by emphatically isolating and reiterating the crux of the moment. It’s a way of reliving it, I think, especially if it’s in a context where there’s other fellow fans who might notice it, because if fans crave one thing, it’s connection with other fans who just saw that same thing happen.
December 2, 2013 — 1:58 PM
terribleminds says:
Totally. And that can work. And as someone pointed out on FB, this is also in a sense a compliment to the storyteller.
It’s just, there are ways to do it without popping everyone else’s cookies along with your own. A cryptic tweet about “HOLY CRAP I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED” will *totally* be understood by the people who are watching the same thing you are. Because they just saw the same thing. And the people who don’t understand won’t understand and everybody’s happy yay.
— c.
December 2, 2013 — 2:01 PM
Toni Rakestraw says:
I totally understand. We’re big Dr Who fans in this house, and watch the BBC broadcast online rather than waiting for a DVD release months later (we don’t have cable), like we used to do. If I feel the urge to post anything online after viewing, I don’t do spoilers. I might say it was awesome, or amazing, but that’s it. No details. Of course, I can’t control what other fans do, and that does spoil it for others. 🙁 It would be nice if they could at least label their post that it contains spoilers, so others could avoid them if they want. It only takes a few seconds of consideration.
December 2, 2013 — 1:58 PM
Laura says:
That whole “type of audience” thing is interesting. I was just thinking about two movies that I really wanted to see that came out recently: Thor 2, and Frozen. I managed to not see any spoilers at all on Thor 2, and Frozen? I’ve seen pretty much the entire movie before it was even out in theaters and now I don’t want to see it.
I totally understand what you’re saying, though. Ideally, I would like to go into a movie knowing nothing other than that I’m going to like it. (But obviously, I know that’s not going to happen short of a pre-The Happening Shyamalan movie.)
December 2, 2013 — 2:04 PM
Samantha Warren says:
Thank you! I was so excited for last night’s TWD, but of course, I have to get up at 4am, so I can’t stay up and watch it. I usually watch it Monday morning once I get the chance. But silly me, I get on FB to check my feed while eating breakfast (because eating and TWD don’t mix), and lo and behold, spoilers galore. And it’s not like you can set FB to NOT show spoilers. FB doesn’t work like that. So my excitement for this episode was so diminished, I didn’t even cry, and I know I would have bawled like a baby if I hadn’t known how things went down. Let me cry, people! I want to be able to cry for my beloved characters!
December 2, 2013 — 2:05 PM
Elaina Roberts (Mazuri) says:
If you use a browser other than Internet Explorer, there are add-ons that allow you to block or place into another tab any post with certain words or phrases. I use Social Fixer. In the options, just go to Filter and type in the keywords (The Walking Dead, TWD, and possibly all living character names just to be certain) and it will automatically move them to a separate tab within FB.
Can’t help with Twitter (though I use TweetDeck, so I block a lot of hashtags especially during sportsball season) or the other outlets, but that might help with Facebook.
December 2, 2013 — 10:13 PM
Adam Christopher (@ghostfinder) says:
I think there’s definitely a whacko spoiler contest going on sometimes. For example, when the BBC released THE NIGHT OF THE DOCTOR (the Doctor Who 50th anniversary mini-prequel), people were posting/tweeting spoilers about ten minutes after it had gone online. The whole episode was only 8 minutes long, and it really revolved around ONE thing – spoil that, and you pretty much destroy the episode. Within thirty minutes, my feed was getting so many spoilers/second I had to unfollow a bunch of people.
But then I realised that it was like some kind of competition. People were bragging, lording it up over those who hadn’t had a chance to see it yet. “I saw it before you” kinda thing.
It was pretty sad. I was lucky in that as soon as it was online I watched it – totally spoiler-free, of course – and afterwards I advised my wife to stay off the internet ENTIRELY until she got home (the episode went online around lunchtime in the UK).
So I suspect it’s the same with TWD, or any other shows or films that are *conspiciously* spoilered. It’s fan versus fan, I-like-it-more-than-you-do stuff.
December 2, 2013 — 2:17 PM
terribleminds says:
Yeah, that DW mini-sode was spoiled for me the moment I logged onto Twitter that morning. Like, click, poof, there it was.
December 2, 2013 — 2:23 PM
Teddy Fuhringer says:
I agree completely. I now make it a point, when I’m excited about a show and want to share my excitement on social media, to challenge myself to express my excitement without spoilers. My friends are very appreciative of this and I get into a lot less online “Grr-Arg!”-fests.
December 2, 2013 — 2:24 PM
Cinthea Stahl says:
I feel your pain. My best advice is to step away from the computer, turn off the phone, make a bowl of popcorn and watch the show in peace. It’s like springtime in rattlesnake country–you have to be extra careful when you walk the dog in the hills.
December 2, 2013 — 2:33 PM
Heather Dudley (@dragonchilde) says:
Part of my job involves spoilers by default. I manage an online community which has a fandom section, so people will talk about it, and well, I have to read it.
I’ve had things spoiled that I didn’t even know existed. Fortunately for me, I have a memory like a sieve, so I’ve forgotten it most of the time. Sometimes though? It can’t be unseen.
I’ve had so much Game of Thrones stuff spoiled for me that I quit reading the books. I’m about to start again, since I found an ebook deal for all of them today, but… well, I already know about the big stuff. All because the bastards put it on TV and people can’t shut up.
December 2, 2013 — 2:40 PM
Stoney says:
Fist heart, peace kiss. PREACH. I live a hardcore spoiler-free life. I stand by the idea that spoilers should be OPT IN not OPT OUT. It used to be that way back in the aughts, too.
One of the reasons I have an audience for my Game of Thrones recaps and discussion posts is because I’m totally unaware of what’s to come, and intend on keeping it that way. My readers have become fiercely protective of me, in fact, messaging me to stay off such and such because spoilers came out. AND ANYONE WHO WANTS TO TELL ME SOMETHING TO COME, PLEASE DON’T.
I Jjust want to enjoy something without it being ruined, it shouldn’t be so damn hard. (But I’m managing to do it. FINGERS CROSSED that I didn’t just fuck that up for myself…)
December 2, 2013 — 2:40 PM
Tami Veldura says:
I find the whole concept of spoilers fascinating and recall recently reading a research paper done on the topic that brought up an interesting conclusion: the people they tested enjoyed an experiance (Tv show, movie, book) more (measured by a chemical reaction in the brain) if they’d been spoiled for it first. The anticipation factor made the entire experiance more intense.
Now, I do have questions on the subject. Were the things being spoiled major plot twists? Were they on movies/Tv/books the participants were already invested in to the geek degree with which we’re all familiar?
There is some anecdotal evidence that supports the idea: grooms to see the bride all dressed up tend to have a more powerful experience when she walks down the isle two hours later.
Having said that, I think that people have the right to not be spoiled if the don’t want to, so running all over their lawn about the latest and greatest isn’t exactly a brilliant plan.
But all of twitter isn’t your lawn. People shouldn’t @you the second they know, but no one should be prevented from sharing their experience on their social platform of choice. Just like Facebook or Google+, the people you choose to follow cannot be expected to censor themselves to anyone’s expectations. It’s their lawn. They can grow invasive bamboo in their lawn and there’s nothing you can (or should) do to change it unless that bamboo pops up on your side of the fence.
If you follow them, you’re on their side of the fence, it’s really that simple.
Everyone has the ability to dictate their own lawn, if you don’t want spoilers that is totally ok.
December 2, 2013 — 2:44 PM
mckkenzie says:
This discussion is bringing out the parent in me. I have never met anyone who likes spoilers. They’re pretty universally despised. So if enough of us agree that spoilers=immediate unfollow, it seems to me that the worst culprits will get a quick lesson via drastically dropped twitter/FB numbers. And whether you’re dealing with toddlers, junior high kids, or morons on the internet, what they want is attention so that’s hitting them where they live. I know, I know, in the meantime there will be shows ruined…but it takes a village to weed out the idiots…umm…or something. And Chuck, I hope you change your mind about watching TWD. Don’t let the spoilers spoil it for you!
December 2, 2013 — 2:49 PM
inkgrrl says:
Doode, I was not ready to know that about Bruce Willis. This is why I agree with you about spoilers. That said, I have a bad habit of raiding spoiler sites because I have a lack of impulse control something akin to a teenage boy in a strip club with a pocket full of twenties. That said, I don’t share those spoilers with anybody else. I just cackle over my sekrit knowledge and fuss about having to wait for the actual episode(s) to see how the story unfolds.
December 2, 2013 — 2:51 PM
Emily Wenstrom says:
Total full-on blog-gasm. Yes. (Yes. YES.)
December 2, 2013 — 2:51 PM
Riley Darkes says:
Chuck, since I don’t watch Breaking Bad, let me ask… do they (or other spoiled shows) create a hashtag for each episode and post it repeatedly through the show? I may be wrong, but I’m leaning towards thinking that TWD folks have conditioned us to be spoilers and that we can do it w/out realizing we’re being DBs.
Here’s a website I found that shows the Social Media strategy of TWD. They are enabling us, by having so much social media available during the EST airing!!! http://socialmediatoday.com/nate-mendenhall/1852056/walking-dead-s-social-strategy-survives
So, I’m not saying that people who spoil in general aren’t total DBs… but I am saying that I think TWD has made it easier for DBs by inviting everyone to share our feelings “now on Twitter, using #PrisonShowdown”.
~Riley
December 2, 2013 — 3:28 PM
Amy says:
Yeah, spoilers suck. Here’s my secret: I’m so far behind (a non-tv owner who watches all HBO & Showtime series on DVDs) – I’ve only just discovered The Wire (AND LOVE IT!!) so it’ll be 10 years or so before I get to the Waking Dead and – phew – will have forgotten any spoilers I’m hearing about now. (But I guess it helps that I don’t FB or Twitter either.)
December 2, 2013 — 3:28 PM
Soy says:
You mean where __________ and then _________?
December 2, 2013 — 4:07 PM
Jennifer Melzer says:
I don’t even watch The Walking Dead anymore and the number of spoilers in my facebook feed last night was infuriating. Great post.
December 2, 2013 — 5:10 PM
Jenna Avery says:
The worst of it is that spoilers can come in all shapes and sizes. People think they’re being clever and obtuse and they’re STILL SPOILING THINGS. I saw a tiny little blurb in a magazine that said, “We liked XXX [movie title] better when it starred [actor] and was called YYY [other movie title].” And because I’d seen YYY, I INSTANTLY knew what the ‘big secret’ of XXX was going to be. And this after I worked hard not to read any articles or reviews or anything about XXX. So. Bummed.
Same thing happened with an episode of Downtown Abbey. Someone in the UK (where they watch it MONTHS before we do) mentioned something that happened at the END OF THE SEASON. So all season long I knew what was coming. It’s such a drag.
You’re right, it’s a first world problem. And, I hate it.
December 2, 2013 — 5:11 PM
Gareth Skarka says:
I’ll take the contrarian view here (surprise, surprise!) and say that I do think that the “spoiler” social phenomenon is one of out-of-control entitlement and self-centeredness… on the part of the complainers.
I cannot wrap my head around the mindset that thinks it’s somehow acceptable to complain about people discussing a shared experience– in a space where those discussions *always* occur — simply because the complainer has not had the experience *yet chose to visit the space anyway*. That somehow, the people discussing the experience are “DBs”, “inconsiderate”, etc. — yet the one making the choice to go where the discussions will be occurring and attempting to police *everyone else’s conversations* are somehow the reasonable ones.
To put it another way: I’m a huge fan of English football. The games are aired live, which means that in the US, they start at 6am on the weekends. No matter how much I love the game, I’m not getting up that early on my weekend. Not going to happen (a choice). So, I DVR them to watch later (another choice). Now, because I know that my social media feeds include other fans, including ones who are in the UK who will be watching live, not DVRed, and also the official social feeds of some of the teams as well, I make the deliberate decision to avoid the internet until I’ve watched the games, so the scores will not be spoiled for me. It’s not particularly a hardship to ask of me, yet somehow nowadays this makes me an outlier — I should apparently be scolding people who watched live for talking about it, in a space where those discussions naturally occur.
Of course, perhaps we’d all be better off if we simply heeded the wise words of the theme to Mystery Science Theater 3000: “Just repeat to yourself: It’s just a show, I should really just relax.”
December 2, 2013 — 5:30 PM
terribleminds says:
Let’s talk about farts for a second. Passing gas. Or belching. Or cursing. Or some other behavior that’s not illegal but one might consider rude, or a breach of social contract.
If you go out to a bar, or to the store, or to any public place, you are welcome to pass gas. Or scream a string of profanity. Or spit on the sidewalk. And I, as an equally free-thinking person, can suggest that I think that it’s rude, or unnecessary. And I can move away from you.
And the person who has broken the social contract can say, “Well, this is the PUBLIC, where it’s OPEN AIR, and I’m allowed to spit and fart and play music so loudly you can’t hear one another talk blah blah blah,” and that’s true. Again, no law against it (presumably). You might even add, “How dare you try to police my behavior — if you don’t want to see these things, don’t go out in public.” Okay, fine.
That doesn’t make it any less considerate of others.
And that’s what I’m saying about spoilers. I find them inconsiderate. That the minority of watchers feel that the majority of current non-watchers must yield to them because they said so is an attitude I don’t particularly like, not as a creator, not as an audience member.
This isn’t just social sharing. Social sharing is finding a place where other like-minded folk gather and talk about it. Twitter and Facebook are social broadcast. They’re not fine-tuned conversation. They’re a hammer, not a scalpel.
It used to be that spoilers were part of a social contract. I walk out of a movie theater cautious not to say anything particularly spoilery as I move past the people waiting to get in the theater. While talking to other people about a show or book or movie I ask where they are in watching the series. I don’t say, “WELL, EAT SHIT, YOU’RE TOO SLOW, IF YOU DIDN’T WANT THAT SPOILED YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE COME OUT WITH ME BECAUSE I WATCHED THE SHOW AND I WANNA TALK ABOUT IT AND WHO CARES ABOUT ANYBODY ELSE BUT WHAT I WANNA SAY.” I try to be mindful of the people around me. I don’t want to spoil a story to them. Stories are important. They’re like gold to me. I don’t want to tarnish that experience.
There exist many many places to go to discuss the show someone is presently watching. Many shows have even set up apps to do just that. At the BARE MINIMUM it helps to use a hashtag that can be filtered out of a conversation through a blocker software, or put some space between the SPOILER WARNING and the ACTUAL SPOILER. I mean, shit, a person literally can’t wait a few hours until the other coast has caught up? This isn’t discussion that’s happening in most places. Like I said, it’s broadcast. Someone yelling — to little effect except — AHH THIS THING HAPPENED. Well, okay, but what’s the point? The people who are watching don’t need you to tell them what happened, and the people who haven’t watched are either confused or spoiled on the story.
And I think that’s a shame. IMHO, YMMV, etc.
That makes me entitled, or self-centered, according to you. Fine, that’s entirely your right. Just as it’s my right to come here and say I think it’s inconsiderate, and if someone does it in my feed, I’m happy to put a wall between me and that person on social media.
*shrug*
— c.
December 2, 2013 — 6:09 PM
Gareth Skarka says:
Actually, I think I see the crux of our very different reads on the issue.
You said: “This isn’t just social sharing. Social sharing is finding a place where other like-minded folk gather and talk about it. Twitter and Facebook are social broadcast. They’re not fine-tuned conversation. They’re a hammer, not a scalpel.”
I view my feed — the people I follow — as a very like-minded space, and treat it accordingly. I’ve curated it along my interests, so it makes sense to me to think of it like that. But what’s easy for me to forget is that others may not be viewing their own feed (of which I am a part) in the same way… and vice-versa.
You’re talking about “breaking the social contract” — when it seems to me that we have a brand-new paradigm of communication that combines elements with VERY different social contracts, and we haven’t yet worked out the new contract.
So we end up with people saying “It’s like X, and X social contract says this!” but others who say “It’s like Y, and Y social contracts say this!” — when it’s actually Z, containing some bits of X and Y and a bunch of stuff which is neither X nor Y.
I’m still not understanding why “avoid discussions when you don’t want to be spoiled” is a non-starter, or somehow equivalent to farting, spitting, etc. and loudly demanding one’s right to do so, when it seems perfectly reasonable to me…. but conversely, I’m also with you on not understanding the “AHHH THIS THING HAPPENED” crowd, either.
Again, I fall back to the MST3K theme. Seems easier.
December 2, 2013 — 6:51 PM
terribleminds says:
I’ve curated along my interests, and part of what I’m saying here is that I don’t have any interest in reading spoilers. So, to some degree, a post like the one above is an explanation to folks why I might unfollow/unfriend.
The problem with “avoid discussions if you don’t want to be spoiled” is that this is not really the issue. If, say, someone has a discussion on FB that includes spoilers — but offers a spoiler warning before said discussion occurs — boom. Done. Avoided.
What I can’t avoid are random tweets or FB updates that spoil Big Story Thing without warning or care. They’re like landmines — I can’t see them, so I can’t avoid stepping on them. And they’re not contributing to a larger discussion. Spoilers, at least the kind I’m talking about, seem rarely engineered to start a conversation. They’re mostly just a loud broadcast of surprise, anger, delight — an emotional response to a thing that happened at best, and at worst a careless or callous attempt to spoil the story for others.
No matter how it shakes out, what’s ultimately happening is that a minority of people (People Who Watch And Then Want To Spoil) think that the majority (Everybody Else) should get the fuck off social media for hours or days so they can have their 15-second-spoilergasm. That’s why I feel it’s inconsiderate — it’s a very loud and undiscriminating minority feeling like the majority should just suck it up and quit bitching.
To which I say, that’s one’s right to use social media how they want. And it’s my right to dislike it and close the door on that person.
December 2, 2013 — 8:49 PM
Kate Taylor says:
I completely agree with you!
December 2, 2013 — 8:18 PM
Alicia J Burke says:
I detest spoilers, so much so I refuse to read pre-release reviews for anything, be it films, books, music.
I do enjoy writing a review, but only to communicate to the author and potential consumers how I felt about the work, not a blow by blow synopsis of the plot! Boooooring!! I don’t ever want someone to do that with my work, so avoid doing it to others as a matter of principal 🙂
December 2, 2013 — 5:52 PM
Taureyscribe says:
I hate spoilers. I still haven’t watched the third matrix cause my sister blurted the Kay info as we sat watching number two. I don’t read books twice for the same reason, if there is no surpris, no novelty it just won’t hold my attention. I covered my eyes and hummed through the ‘making of’ that aired in Au just before ‘deathly hallows’, way to spoil the magic. So I agree totally in the sentiment.
I do wonder though if some of the comments indicate a different way of enjoying TV/series. And if a program chooses such a fierce social media approach needs to know the are hook line and grabbing one group, but also losing significant numbers of another group.
I’m not on twitter etc and this has convinced me to stay that way 🙂
December 2, 2013 — 6:04 PM
Jamie Maltman says:
I’ve always been vehemently anti-spoilers, and a massive DVR user. I’m also a big sports fan, so had to train myself from the beginning. I watch almost nothing live, but instinctively go into social media withdrawal until I’ve watched tonight’s game. My friends know how I watch sports and I would shut them out if they intentionally spoiled something.
I find it easier to stay spoiler free on shows since I started working from home. But I do go into a social media shell if its something I care about. Its been funny but cool to see DW get so big. I’ve been a fan since I was a little kid watching Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee reruns on PBS weeknights with late Baker on Saturdays. So to see it as spoiler worthy makes me happy. But I watched the 50th live to stay away from any spoilers. And my subsequent posts were just saying ambiguous things about the general awesomeness.
December 2, 2013 — 6:15 PM
julie says:
It has taken me about 7 years to condition my family to the fact that I do not like Doctor Who Spoilers. This after my mother opened an email exchange several weeks before the end of an early season of the new version [SPOILER ALERT; NOT FOR ANYONE WHO’S EVER WATCHED THE SHOW BUT JUST IN CASE ANYONE IS ABOUT TO POP THEIR DOCTOR WHO CHERRY — SPOILER ALERT AWOOGA AWOOGA] with the words ‘So what do you think of the new companion then?’
This in spite of the fact that she knew
a, I didn’t want any spoilers
b, I don’t live in Britain any more and therefore wasn’t being bombarded with headlines about what was still a relatively unknown show over here and
c, I don’t have cable and watch almost no TV, none of it live.
Her defence was an injured “It’s all over the news, here…”
Nowadays, I announce that I will be watching it on such-and-such a date and then I do stay off Twitter and Facebook because It matters that much to me and it’s only a matter of 12 hours… but that’s one show. This may be why I rarely commit myself to watching any series any more. I have had things spoiled to the point where I didn’t bother watching them at all, because why bother investing in the characters when you know X is going to happen to them?
I suspect the spoiling is part enthusiasm and part the same kind of weirdness that makes fourteen people simultaneously post on a popular blog “OMG First Post. Really?”
December 2, 2013 — 6:15 PM
elsie alexandra cristina venegas ibarra says:
I love trying to figure it out books before finish them, series too, movies too; now with internet is really easy someone had a snapshot, had take part of an script and give it to everyone in the internet and let you down with spoilers.
I love tidbits of spoilers, but nothing mayor, like have a snapshot of production without tails or head an try to figure it out about, write about as in fanfiction.
ex:
In some fandoms: Sherlock Holmes Fandom is everything pretty ridiculous because Watson will marry Mary Morstan at some point even if I don’t want it, because that is an spoiler of 100 years old, like that Moriarty really died and Sherlock is alive and comeback!
the thing is How exactly?, what the changes will be? what stories will be doing? Who is Sebastian Moran in these series??
So people got scandalized when they knew Mary Morstan will appear this year but it is really an spoiler when Watson was married to Morstan for some years in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories and even in the recent movies??
but I want to know why he married in the hiatus?, She would die of sickness like in the books? why she didn’t die on the hiatus and will appear now after it? not like in the books?
IT IS exiting!
about new fandoms with new series with new scripts, like Doctor who, they are very protective of their scripts and every detail, hey fans who preview the first episode of season 7 didn’t say a word not even to their partners for three months until it aired.
but as Doctor who is 50 years old, everything who happened before the movie of the 90’s with 8th is a spoiler to me!
and there is no way to escape them, no way in hell.
about next doctors you know when the actor says You know I will go away this December and you are in April so there is no way you won’t know there will be a new doctor. Then started the speculation, who everybody wanted to be. ( a lot of people wanted a woman regeneration)
and finally BBC because would explode if not give a bone and prepare one special on October and said
“This actor will be next Doctor who”, but how 11th will die? in the xmas special? how this new doctor will be, how he will react to humans and aliens alike which personality will take???
We don’ know and the episode was filmed already so there no even a production snapshot of the new doctor to see how it look like and the official pics are all of th 11th
December 2, 2013 — 6:20 PM
robwritespulp says:
This has especially become a problem since I moved overseas, where we may not get a movie or TV show until weeks or months after its original air date. Frozen, for example, won’t come out here in Hong Kong until December 19th (at which point we’ll be gone for the holidays, and won’t see it until January). The Walking Dead airs here, but not on a channel we selected in our cable package. Generally we watch shows like that on Netflix or DVD after the season ends.
And that’s what annoys me about the “First World Problem” arguments. HEY GUYS, NOT ALL OF US LIVE IN AMERICA.
Surprise! People in the so-called “Third World” still watch movies and TV. The Walking Dead plays in Latin America, the Middle East, Turkey and South Africa. Tellingly, this season FIC started airing TWD one day after the American premiere rather than one week because they were losing so much revenue to piracy. Now, I can’t prove that’s because people were tired of getting it spoiled, but FIC’s PR rep did cite “online chatter” as a concern.
http://www.thewrap.com/walking-dead-overseas-premiere
December 2, 2013 — 6:48 PM
John Boggs says:
Sometimes even being told there’s a surprise ending spoils it for me. Someone up above mentioned “The Crying Game.” As soon as I saw the picture of Forest Whitaker’s girlfriend I knew the “surprise” was that she was a man. Maybe I would have intuited that anyway; I don’t know.
My brain, when I’ve been told that a movie/book/TV show has a surprise ending, spends a lot of energy while I’m watching working to guess what the surprise will be, and it takes me out of the experience more than I’d like. Plus, I often get it right, so even being told there’s a surprise acts as a spoiler.
December 2, 2013 — 6:59 PM
Dan Thompson says:
Yep, this.
A reader only gets to experience a story for the first time… once. And that means a storyteller only has one shot at telling it *to* them for the first time. So, let the reader/viewer experience the story the way the storyteller wanted them to experience it. The story wasn’t made that way by accident.
December 2, 2013 — 7:04 PM
girlusinterruptus says:
First of all, your made up spoilers are ten times more fun and funny than real spoilers, so I thank you for that! and Second of al, I think I need to start using this term for sure: “Mister Spoilertrousers.” Thanks for an insightful commentary that not only said “I don’t like spoilers” but said why. Well done.
December 2, 2013 — 7:27 PM
Narrelle says:
My husband and I learned the joy of seeing films completely unSpoiled when we lived in Egypt and then Poland. We hardly watched TV so missed the relevant ads, and most of the print media was in a language we didn’t speak. We saw films based on whether we thought the poster was interesting. A lot of comedies turn out to be much funnier when you haven’t seen six of the best jokes in the trailer beforehand. To this day, we work hard to approach films, tv and books in a spoiler-free manner, but damn, some people make it hard.
And then some of the spoiler-gnomes who so love to post spoilers get mad at us for lamenting the difficulty by declaring ‘there’s no such thing as spoilers any more, since everyone does it.’ Sigh.
Apparently, wanting to experience something as the writers/filmmakers intended is… kind of *selfish* of me.
To be fair, even the BBC makes it hard. We don’t even watch their Dr Who promos any more because of the spoilerific manner in which they do them.
*going away now to nurse my first world problems to my bosom, and weep*
December 2, 2013 — 7:55 PM
robwritespulp says:
Unfortunately, I don’t feel like that’s the case with expats anymore. These days if you’re living overseas it’s essentially a requirement to have Facebook so your family and friends can stay in contact with you (as long as you don’t live in a country when it’s blocked). It’s become the primary method of communication since you can easily keep everyone up to date without the unwieldy email blasts that annoy everyone and take a long time two write. It’s perfect in a lot of ways, but one of the disadvantages is that stuff gets spoiled left and right.
What kills me about it is this: the promise of DVR, Hulu, HBO Go and DVD was that was that you could watch TV on your schedule. In reality, you have to catch it right after the premiere or risk having it spoiled for you on Facebook or in the elevator at work. Spoilers are TV reasserting control over us despite all our tools.
Frankly, my new tactic is to only start watching popular TV shows after they’re over. That way, I don’t care about hearing that Munch Zombieski got killed on Walking Dead, since I have no concept of who Munch Zombieski is or if they’re important.
December 2, 2013 — 9:15 PM
terribleminds says:
“What kills me about it is this: the promise of DVR, Hulu, HBO Go and DVD was that was that you could watch TV on your schedule. In reality, you have to catch it right after the premiere or risk having it spoiled for you on Facebook or in the elevator at work. Spoilers are TV reasserting control over us despite all our tools.”
This is, in part, what the channels want and it’s why they encourage discussion and spoilers, in part. Because of ad revenue from that original airing. It’s MUST SEE TV, not MUST DVR TV. Reinforced all the more by a wide open spoiler-culture.
— c.
December 2, 2013 — 9:21 PM
robwritespulp says:
Agreed. On the other hand, it encourages networks to greenlight shows that have a lot of plot-twists, reveals, mystery and plot lines with long-term payoffs–which is A Good Thing. Those dramatic tools can make excellent narratives.
Of course it also encourages the “Who Gets Kicked Off This Week?!” reality shows that use manufactured reveals, and are cheaper than narrative drama, which is Not A Good Thing.
I recall seeing an ad several years ago that boiled down to: “Watch it Thursday, or hear about it at work Friday!” Pretty blatant knock against DVR.
December 2, 2013 — 9:41 PM
Ashley says:
Someone needs to smack those people over the head with a clue-by-four. That’s like saying there’s no such things as rape or bullying because everyone does it >.< Seriously people, just because you can doesn't mean you should.
December 2, 2013 — 9:57 PM
Mozette says:
This is what shits me about ‘Supernatural’ right now. In the States, they’ll air it on Tuesday or Wednesday and the following Monday night, Australia gets to see it… fair enough, great! But on the net, we’re bombarded with images of what happened in the show that happened before it’s aired here and who does what to who, how it all ends up and how the storyline goes before we even get to see it advertised!
So… what I’ve done is avoid those pages on FB until after the show is aired because it’s pissing me off so much. And like you said, Chuck, it’s like telling us the ending of all our books before we read them. I’d never do that to somebody, so why are people doing this to others on the net when they know it’s a shit thing to do.
December 2, 2013 — 8:37 PM
Rio says:
[EDIT: SPOILER WARNING FOR BREAKING BAD BELOW]
* * *
Tumblr is probably the words place to hang out if you don’t like spoilers. I have friends who know about each major plot point of shows they don’t even watch.
And don’t even get me started about the ending of Breaking Bad. I tried so hard, SO FUCKING HARD to avoid spoilers for the final episodes. I managed to stay off the internet for an entire week, even. But then I turn on my television to watch the local news in the morning, AND THE NEWS ANCHORS SPOIL THE DAMN ENDING! Seriously, they had an entire story titled (spoilers, by the way) “Walter dies in the final episode of Breaking Bad!” What even is that? I mean, what the actual fuck? And then they proceed to talk about how a bunch of fans were holding some sort of fake funeral, and then I blacked out in a rage coma.
December 2, 2013 — 8:48 PM
terribleminds says:
Rio —
Edited your comment to indicate the spoiler in it.
But yeah, it’s true — sometimes the news will spoil something. Or if you’re the least bit savvy, you can tell — CNN will have a headline: “SHOCKING DEATH ON TV SHOW” and then spoil it by showing a picture of the character who bit it so it’s like, “Fine, dicks, thanks.”
December 2, 2013 — 8:50 PM
Luke Matthews (@GeekElite) says:
It seems like this might be more of an issue on Facebook than on Twitter. On Twitter, I don’t really have much choice in who follows me, without making my entire feed private, which (to me) defeats the purpose of Twitter. So, it seems that on Twitter, especially, people should endeavor to remain spoiler-free.
It’s on Facebook that it really bothers me. A Facebook friendship is, ostensibly, a two-way street. You had to request to be my friend; I had to approve that request (or vice versa). So, dumping spoilers out into the air on Facebook seems like a super dick move specifically targeted at people you consider “friends”.
I don’t generally get pissed about spoilers on Twitter because, well, it’s my choice to follow someone and they don’t have much say in that. I routinely unfollow people who post spoilers there, though. On Facebook, though? FUCK THAT GUY.
December 2, 2013 — 8:50 PM
Dani says:
THANK you. I’ve had to block retweets of people I follow on Twitter because they’ll retweet spoiler pictures without ever considering that some people may not want to know. And I get it, it’s a picture, and what can a picture tell me, but that’s not the point. If it hasn’t aired yet, I don’t want to see it, period. I’m vague when I live-tweet a show (“Hell yes, Character X!”) because I have followers who don’t watch things right away. Hell, I have a friend who’s not yet seen a show from four years ago that I hope to share with her someday, and I won’t directly say anything about it to her. (Though I’m sure she knows by now because … four years.) As you said, it’s simply consideration.
December 2, 2013 — 8:55 PM
Sass says:
Ugh. Spoilers. It’s not just TV and movies. They’re by far the worst offenders, but certain book fandoms can’t keep their pie-holes shut either. Divergent, for example.
I was a book behind when Allegiant came out. It wasn’t a series I was particularly invested in, but I intended to get around to Insurgent and Allegiant. But then, when Allegiant came out, Veronica Roth started receiving death threats over killing a central character. Which is obviously Not On.
But what I found to also be not okay were all the people yelling “[character name]’s death is not cause for death threats!” Without the redaction. The book had been out for a matter of hours, and as far as I knew I didn’t follow anyone in that fandom. Am I supposed to just never use Twitter again, just on the off chance that someone might have already read/watched/played one of the approximately 11 million things I’m looking forward to consuming one day???
Still haven’t read the rest of the Divergent trilogy. Now that I know how it ends, it’s harder to get up the enthusiasm for it.
December 2, 2013 — 9:16 PM