Living in “Overstimulated Times”: Revisiting the Social Criticism of Videodrome in the Internet Era

Abstract

David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983) is one of the earliest cyberpunk films, and one of the few cinematic works in the genre that diverge from the futuristic neon-noir aesthetic pioneered by Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982). Also with respect to its subject matter, it represents an outlier in first-wave cyberpunk as it focusses on the familiar medium of TV instead of the new frontiers of cyberspace. Made during the advent of cable TV, it reflects contemporaneous anxieties over the impact of capitalist market mechanisms on the information landscape. Although TV has now lost its monolithic status to the internet, the social critique of Videodrome is arguably more topical than ever. By addressing the friction between objectivity and subjectivity, fact and fiction, biology and technology, it poses questions that are at the very heart of present-day collective challenges. This article explores the relevance of Videodrome’s criticism of a TV-centered culture to contemporary discussions regarding the effects of digital interactive media on human psychology and the social fabric