Latest / Hope + Possibilities: Trust, Leadership + Strategic Foresight / Why Do We Hate Spoilers and Love Easter Eggs?

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Why Do We Hate Spoilers and Love Easter Eggs? · Hope + Possibilities: Trust, Leadership + Strategic Foresight

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Hi, I'm Nola Simon.
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I'm the host of the Hope and Possibilities podcast.
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And what I've learned over the years is that this podcast is really a
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place where I follow my curiosity and examine things that I think need more
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attention, and this ranges in variety.
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But today I wanna talk about spoilers and Easter eggs and what that tells
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us about how we consider the future and the skills involved in futurism.
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And so I'm gonna have to explain this because it's not
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really that obvious an idea.
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It's a theory.
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There's not an extensive amount of research to back it up, so it does seem
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to be an idea that's on the forefront that needs to be fleshed out a little bit.
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So I'm gonna ask you for your patience, and hopefully I can logically
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explain what I'm talking about.
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So what I've noticed is, especially when I'm on Threads, people are always
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talking about shows that they've watched.
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Could be books, tends to be movies, tends to be shows.
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And
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People either hate spoilers or love spoilers.
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And I'm personally a person who I grew up on Choose Your Own Adventure
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books, but the way that I read Choose Your Own Adventure books is
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I would do it once and then go back and read all of the other options.
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So I really looked into how the story was laid out, w- what would change if
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you made certain decisions, and how that made the story feel different.
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So for me, it's more of how is the story itself constructed, and how does
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that change your experience of it?
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And so for me, the choices, the structures, all of that is part of
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how I analyze and enjoy storytelling.
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I love spoilers.
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I seek them out if I don't find them.
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I look at IMDb.
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I look for, hidden cameos and what that might mean ahead of
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time so that I can spot the craft.
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Now, I was under the impression, because I could see that people are
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getting really angry about spoilers it's really triggering to people.
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And to me, I was finding this upsetting because it's about accountability for me.
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You choose where you put your attention, and so if you know that
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spoilers trigger you, then you have the ability to decide to not engage.
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You can hide comments.
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You can, mute the name of the show.
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You can mute the name of the actors.
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You have a certain amount of control to govern your feed
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so that you don't see that.
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And so if you know it's triggering to you, don't engage.
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So somebody pointed out to me that if you work online and your work
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is on social media and you have to engage professionally, you often
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don't necessarily have the discretion to avoid it in a way that somebody
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s- whose job doesn't involve that.
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So it's a point of privilege to be able to disengage, which, was fair.
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So why I'm interested in it is why people get so angry.
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People… My empathy is with the people who like spoilers.
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We actually tend to be in the minority as far as I can tell.
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So I'm interested in why people who hate spoilers really get so angry and
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they get angry to the point of being, like, abusive in their comments and
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insulting and just completely unpleasant.
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And for me, it's it's still a story.
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It's still a represent- representation of you professionally.
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Why do you wanna get so
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Divisive.
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Divisive?
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Why do you wanna embrace the divide?
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And I could feel myself getting into it too.
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It's control yourself, basically.
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But I started having multiple interactions like this, and so I started becoming
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curious, 'cause that's when I start to look at things and I start to understand
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that there's more to it than just an instinctual reaction of one person,
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that there's something else at play.
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So what was it?
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So my question, honestly, has been like, why do people hate spoilers but
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love Easter eggs, and what does that mean about how we pay attention to-
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trends and signals and scenarios about the future because are they the same thing?
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Is it, is our reaction to like a fictional story similar to how we react
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to the possibilities about the future?
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And so I've spent a lot of time talking to people online and
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just asking complete strangers.
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I have no idea who most of these people are
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what the difference is.
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And as far as I can tell is, so a spoiler could be anything that change your percep-
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changes your perception of what the story is and what the outcome could be
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And
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Impacts your enjoyment of the art, whether it's movies, TV, or
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whatever it is in a way that the original artist didn't intend, right?
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You're experiencing it directly from the artist.
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Somebody told me that, my impression that loving spoilers means
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you're appreciating the craft.
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She also appreciated the craft, but what she said was reading
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other people's interpretation of it online is like reading…
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experiencing the piece through the filters of thousands of other people who
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don't have the same perceptions as you.
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They have biases.
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They have misinterpretation.
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They are less talented than the original artists that are presenting it, and
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so reading spoilers is filtering it in a way that she doesn't enjoy.
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And I'm like, "Wow, that makes complete and utter sense to me." I love it.
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I read the spoilers, but I always filter it through my own perceptions.
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And my other thought on this was it's about anxiety.
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My daughter has anxiety, and so what she's explained to me over the years is
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that she likes to rewatch stories because there's no surprise in the stories.
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It's comforting to her because she knows exactly how the episode is gonna go.
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She knows exactly how the movie is gonna end.
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There's nothing that's going to surprise her.
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It's a comfort watch because there's reliability in what's gonna
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happen, and so spoilers, in lots of ways, are a reaction to anxiety.
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So somebody like me, who actually likes spoilers, do I actually like
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spoilers because I'm trying to filter out the one story that actually
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matters and just ignore all the rest, and it's a way of managing my anxiety
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about what that story actually is?
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Or are the people who really dislike spoilers-
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Are they
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Is it the possibility that makes them, puts them on the edge of their
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seat, and then narrowing that down by reading spoilers to the one,
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they're losing that possibility of what the other storylines could be.
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And again, it's a form of managing our anxiety about what that means to
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narrow something down from multiple possibilities into one particular story.
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I don't know.
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So I'm reading about science of anticipation and what we look forward
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to and how we look forward to things.
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And the research honestly is limited.
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So this is where I'm taking this, is when we are reading story or sharing
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stories, we're anticipating how the stories will go, how it's revealed
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how we'll feel throughout the process, and what the outcome will be, and
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what that will actually mean to us.
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And then once that story is done, how do we engage with it after the fact?
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I'm very much a, I never go back to you.
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I might go back to you 30 years later.
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I might go back to reading a book maybe, five years later.
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I generally don't wa- rewatch TV shows.
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I don't rewatch movies.
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I've been rewatching '90s rom-coms just because they're available, and
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sometimes there's just nothing else on.
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And I've forgotten a lot of it.
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I remember some of it, but I forgot the overall details, so
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it's oh, I can experience it new.
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But generally I don't rewatch.
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I don't
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I'll reread.
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I don't rewatch.
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And that to me is more about what the story means to me.
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I've gotten everything out of it that I could possibly get out of it.
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I find that I find new things in the written word, whereas I don't
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necessarily find it in the visual mediums like TV or movies, right?
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Now, again, I think there's an aspect of agency involved with this as well.
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It goes back to that question of why do you like spoilers or
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why do you dislike spoilers, but you like or dislike Easter eggs?
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Is an Easter egg not a spoiler?
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So my daughter, who's 19, had an ap- a fairly good impress- impression on
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this one, which was a spoiler narrows the story down into one, right?
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It helps you focus into where that story is actually going, and it
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reveals things that are constrictions on what that story could possibly be.
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An Easter egg, you're still preserving the possibilities because there is
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no confirmation until you've actually watched the final product, right?
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But you're paying attention to a way, and the artist is trying to focus
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your attention in different ways.
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And Taylor Swift, of course, is the most obvious example of somebody who
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uses Easter eggs in her marketing to get people excited on an ongoing basis
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about the, the music and the decisions that she's making in her career.
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She has crafted no-go zones, right?
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So she has said that she doesn't have Easter eggs about her personal life.
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Any Easter egg is about how she is making decisions in her business what
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the album might look like, how many songs are involved, what the themes
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might be, what the colors might be, when the release dates might be
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Any of those are fair game, right?
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So she has no-go zones into what she's not really gonna touch
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and what is on the table, right?
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And some of them we probably don't even know, right?
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There was one for Mastermind, which was part of the Eras Tour, and it--
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the s- this stage became like a chessboard, and that was in part an
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Easter egg for the song Mastermind, which people did not get, right?
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She actually disclosed that in a book that she published after the tour, right?
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So Easter eggs, if you think that it's about agency and you search it out,
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but you're pursuing that in a way that sparks your curiosity, that makes you
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feel empowered, that makes you feel part of a community because other people
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are looking for the same answers and you're collaboratively looking together
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and nobody really has the true answer until it actually is confirmed or, is…
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There's consensus.
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So Easter eggs are about possibilities, whereas spoilers feel worse.
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So again, it's about that triggering of dopamine.
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What ha- what storytelling kind of triggers in your brain is
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that excitement feels good.
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That curiosity feels good.
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The possibilities give you hope.
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They spark your interest.
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They, they keep you guessing and keep you engaged.
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Whereas spoilers are about that narrowing and there's loss of agency
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because apparently even if you can't sh- log off social because of your work
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and whatnot, you've lost the control.
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You've lost the agency to disengage from an activity or disengage from reading
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something that might ruin The way that you like to consume the material, right?
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And, people do try in lots of ways.
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People do post spoiler warnings.
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There's the blur function on threads.
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I've been told that sometimes that malfunctions.
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But I've actually had people come after me even if I've used the blur
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function and complain that what I've written was a spoiler to them.
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And then the other thing is, what is defined as a spoiler?
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It could be the most broad comment, and people still will
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interpret that as a spoiler.
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So there's no clear description of what a spoiler really is, when it's acceptable
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to actually write about it what's fair game, what's considered public knowledge.
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I use the Odyssey as an example.
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That story is 2,700 years old.
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The Christopher Nolan movie was published last year, and people complained
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that the Trojan horse was a spoiler.
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That's… That part of the story is 2,700 years old.
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At what point do you consider that it's public domain?
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And it can't possibly be a spoiler because it's common knowledge.
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But it's again about the interpretation.
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So recency bias really has an impact in terms of spoilers and Easter eggs
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and what con- is considered fair game.
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And again, it's about that, that agency and how you feel respected is are people
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trying to give you the choice to really engage in talking about the piece, or are
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they respecting the fact that you may not have time to have watched it or read it
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or whatever and giving you that discretion to say, "Yeah, I've watched it yet.
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No, I haven't.
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Please don't tell me what happens because I wanna experience it because it's really
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important to me." The other part of it is why can't we express that in a way
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that is productive and sustains possible relationships and appreciates the craft
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and have a conversation about that?
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And it's interesting to me because again, it comes back to how and why people
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engage online and who they want to show up being and how they talk to people.
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And that aspect of reputation is a real problem on social media
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these days, especially on platforms where you don't have to actually
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operate under your real name.
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You can choose a username that is anonymous.
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And you feel that you can say whatever you wanna say without actually having
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repercussions and behave in a way that doesn't represent you, who you are, if
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people actually knew your real name.
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That's an aspect of it as well, too.
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I found that I've actually had… I was actually surprised 'cause I
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thought that discussing this might actually trigger a lot of people.
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And it-- I did definitely get a lot of nuanced interested reactions that,
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that engaged with me in a way that I felt was productive and really advanced
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my understanding about how they feel and how they perceive the art.
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I did get people who are patronizing and tried to make me feel dumb because
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what a spoiler should be is obvious.
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A woman actually came to me, and she's "It's like a kid on Christmas. They
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don't necessarily mean to reveal what the Christmas gift is, but if they
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tell you, they've ruined Christmas."
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To me, there's a lot of nuance to that example because with Christmas,
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there's an agreed-upon date.
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You know when it is.
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There's rituals involved in hiding.
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You wrap presents.
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You disguise it, and there's an end time.
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Christmas day is, s- when you're gonna open the presents usually.
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Obviously, schedules play into that and family traditions.
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My, my German family opens presents on Christmas Eve, right?
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So there's specific social norms that are defined when it comes to s-
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spoilers and Easter eggs, especially in days of streaming when everybody
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can watch it whenever they want.
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There's no set date.
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There's no set time.
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There's no defined rule that's accepted globally that this is when you can.
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You have to add in time zones.
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People, who got access 12 hours earlier might feel that, it's fair game because
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it's almost d- another day, right?
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But they're not accounting for time zones and people who might engage differently
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because, the, the release happened in the middle of the night for them.
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So this is where I find it's really a, a triggering of how we
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value storytelling, how much we
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Want to anticipate something that we perceive is going to give us joy, is going
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to keep us curious, is going to keep us engaged, is going to offer us a different
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way and a different perspective on the way the world works, and who's sustaining that
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for us and who's making that experience a, a more negative event, right?
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And that's, I think, where people get nasty about it.
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It's like, "You're taking this from me." They feel like they're losing something
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in terms of the experience of it.
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Now, this becomes interesting to me because it becomes that whole
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science of anticipation and what that means for signals and trends
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and scenario planning in the future.
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So if you get this negative about how story works and what happens
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at the outcome of a movie, then is this part of the reason that people
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are actually resistant to the idea of imagining a possible future?
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Because they're resistant to the idea of spoilers.
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To me, this is the fascinating part is I don't know that it directly translates.
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I don't have a degree in neuroscience.
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I don't exactly know how the brains work and whether what we're
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observing in terms of like low stakes pop culture storytelling really
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translates into something that is like, what is the future of work?
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How does AI impact our job?
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Those bigger strategic questions that have the possibility to
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reshape how we live and work.
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I don't know that there's a direct translation there,
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but I'm wondering if it's
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like a, a signal worth investigating, worth researching more.
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And does that matter in terms of how we're presenting change and reinvention?
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If we're presenting things like they're Easter eggs
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Does that help people trust the future or not?
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If we're presenting things as spoilers of this is the way the story is
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and this is the only possibility, does that trigger defensiveness?
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Likely it might, right?
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So what can we learn in terms of what we understand about communication
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and how people are reacting to what happens in pop culture and how we
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actually build out our futures and how we want to think about our futures?
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And to me, it makes logical sense that there is not one single future.
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There are multiple futures because there's endless permutations of how
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people experience life and work.
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So to me, it makes more sense to-- we want to embrace more Easter eggs and
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those signals and those trends rather than just depending on scenarios which really
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curtail it down into something, a specific story, which is helpful in terms of
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context and helping people imagine it, but it also narrows out those possibilities.
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And we know that narrowing out those possibilities and
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fine-tuning it into a single story
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From what we're seeing in pop culture, that experience of that
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narrowing can actually trigger defensiveness and divisiveness.
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And that's where I find it fascinating and I wanna research a little bit more
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So
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I want you to think, answer a few questions for you.
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Are you the type of person who likes spoilers?
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Do you not like spoilers?
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Why do you write about anything that you consume or watch or read on social media?
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What reaction do you expect to get, and how does it make you feel?
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Because I think that why we write is that we're looking for connection.
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It's about that collective effervescent that we get.
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If you attend like a concert and everybody's experiencing this,
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the music at the same time.
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It's like going to a play, and only the people who are in the presence of that
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particular version of that play presented by those actors and those directors
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and whoever happens to be there at a…
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are having that extreme experience of that particular permutation
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of how it's presented, right?
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And then if you think about like how you pick up on hints and clues, Easter
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eggs if you want and how that engages you in a story or turns you off, right?
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If you are the type of person who hates paying attention to that kind of
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stuff are you also the kind of person who really doesn't pick up on trends?
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Are you also the kind of person who really doesn't l- pay attention to signals?
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How do you make your decisions about the future?
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And is it the same sort of process for you, right?
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So it's an exercise in understanding really what your worldview is and how you
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make decisions and what that means for
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how you experience ambiguity and uncertainty and how you make the
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decisions in the face of not knowing.
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And that's where I think the whole spoiler Easter egg debate becomes really
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interesting in terms of work i'd love it if you subscribe to the podcast.
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I'm doing an experiment that possibly means that I appear
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on the Canadian charts.
23:36
This really will help to amplify the podcast, but it's also
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about sovereignty in Canada.
23:44
So I'm not particularly drawn by charts, but it's is it important, is
23:50
it a civic duty to really maximize your search engine optimization, your
23:55
SEO, so that you appear on charts?
23:58
And does that actually advance the possibilities for Canadian voices?
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Because if more and more of us appear on podcast charts around the world, does
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that help us become more competitive and less dependent on the United
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States and other entities in a way that really advances our sovereignty?
24:22
And that is a civic duty.
24:24
So this is my experiment.
24:26
Again, low stakes.
24:27
You just subscribe on whatever podcast player you use, and
24:31
we see what happens in that.
24:33
So thank you for listening.
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Appreciate it.
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Love to hear your questions too.
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You can email me at nola@nolasimon.com.
24:39
or you could comment or rate the podcast or do a review on whatever player you use.
24:44
Thanks.