Anti-Goldilocks (Jackpot January #17)

Astronomy recognises areas in space known as ‘Goldilocks zones.’ Also called a habitable zone, these are pockets of the universe where conditions allow for our evolution and sustenance. In such areas, it is not too hot and not too cold, but just right for life to emerge. The fact that I am writing this and you are reading it tells us that Earth, where both of us probably are, is in the Goldilocks zone.

You can extend this concept further. For almost anything to be as it is requires smaller Goldilocks zones. If you get on with your family, it is because they are neither too distant nor too clingy. You fuel your body because, when you eat and drink, you neither have too much nor too little. Aristotle called this the Golden Mean, and it’s a pretty simple principle describing how things work.

But right now things are not working. They haven’t been for a while for many reasons, and I’d argue that one of these is that we are currently living in an anti-Goldilocks era.

In anti-Goldilocks times, everything is always anything other than just right. Under anti-Goldilocks conditions, we never find balance. Online platforms sustain addiction through rapid fluctuations from one extreme to the other and back again. Our feet are always on the accelerator and we get whiplash every time we turn. I fear someone may have cut the breaks.

Take video content, for example. It is always either too short or too long, and never just right. The two most popular video-hosting platforms are TikTok and YouTube. TikTok runs on algorithmically-driven short-form content, and YouTube runs on algorithmically-driven long-form content. TikTok rewards short shareable memes, YouTube rewards long backing tracks to your chores. You can either get burnt out on hundreds of tiny little unrelated crumbs, or burned out on one big chunky hyperfocused feast. These two diametrical opposites sustain the media landscape.

Now let’s look at online shops. When you search for an item on Amazon, you have to scroll through tons of unrelated suggestions and paid promotions in order to find relevant results. In many other non-Amazon shops, such as Etsy or RedBubble, you do not get enough relevant results at all. Either way, you end up spending money on something cheap that isn’t really what you want. The same is true of Internet searches. People keep talking about how much Google sucks now because, if you search for anything more complex than ‘Reddit’ or ‘Instagram’, you have to scroll through an AI overview which is probably wrong, a panel off to the side which is probably incomplete, and about four paid results which are probably irrelevant scams. Searches are either overstuffed or starved.

Spend look enough on of the main sites and you’ll probably find loads of examples of this. Steam has too many games; the Epic store has too few. Netflix has too much trash; Amazon Prime has barely anything at all.

We are stuck in a constant cycle of extremes. Hot takes and cold calls, long shots and short cuts. It’s everything and nothing at once. Extreme experiences are vital to our wellbeing but, like anything, they must come in moderation. I don’t think balance is the answer to all our problems; sometimes something really is intolerable and must be totally opposed. But we have forgotten what it feels like to have balance. Once we have a bit of practice at that, it’s easier to see in what ways our lives are wildly out of proportion.