Cultural texts have quietly changed direction. Instead of speaking to thinking readers, many now address potential buyers. What sounds like experience often follows a logic of recommendation.
The Subtle Shift
Among the most inconspicuous yet consequential changes of the present is that cultural texts now regard their audience differently than they did just a few decades ago. They no longer address readers who want to understand, but consumers who are meant to choose. This shift, however, rarely unfolds openly. It reveals itself in a tone that appears friendly and avoids all friction. Precisely therein lies its effect. Where once description and interpretation prevailed, a stream of recommendations now emerges. The text no longer serves insight but prepares a decision. The reader becomes a customer. Judgment becomes a service.
The New Tone
The tone resembles that of a personal account. A narrating “I” appears, presenting itself as open and approachable, reporting on a visit or a discovery. Yet this “I” is rarely shaped by literary intention. It fulfills a function. Its task is to generate proximity and create trust. Personal experience takes the place of judgment. Recommendation replaces analysis. What initially appears as authenticity usually follows a clear intention: the distance between representation and purchase incentive is meant to disappear. Thus, the text becomes an intermediary between product and reader without revealing itself as advertising.
Critique Without Consequences
In this new textual economy, critique has lost its consequence. If it is voiced at all, it appears only as a mild nuance within an overall affirmative framework. A product may have minor flaws, a place slight shortcomings, yet none of this alters the overall picture. This apparent differentiation serves credibility rather than judgment. It creates the impression of consideration without ever making a decision. In the end, there is almost always a form of affirmation. The text reassures. It confirms. A language of approval emerges that avoids any real distinction—and precisely therein fulfills its function.
An Economy of Agreeability
The reasons for this development lie in plain view. Editorial content is increasingly embedded in economic structures based on cooperation and visibility. When revenue depends on relationships, the tone becomes more cautious. A critical text may close doors; a friendly one opens them. Within this logic, selection is replaced by presence. What is shown is what is available, not necessarily what holds significance. The boundary between observation and strategic representation grows increasingly blurred. The text becomes part of a system built on mutual restraint and therefore largely devoid of risk.
The Disappearance of Hierarchy
When the text is transformed into a system of recommendations, hierarchy also disappears. Everything appears interesting. Everything is presented. Hardly anything is rejected. Yet omission was once the true achievement of cultural media. Selection meant weighting. Weighting meant stance. When every novelty receives attention, that attention loses its value. Images and products line up without being placed in a coherent line of thought. What remains is a stream of well-formulated triviality that preserves the appearance of content without possessing its substance.
The Possibility of Another Tone
A cultural medium that addresses its readers as thinking individuals withdraws from this logic. It shows without selling. It describes without recommending. Above all, it has the courage not to address many things. Not every appearance demands attention. Not every novelty requires a text. Only in this restraint does weight re-emerge. A text that seeks to sell nothing can observe. A medium that has nothing to promise can distinguish. In a time when almost every text recommends something, a text that does not already becomes a sign of independence.
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