Media Consumption During the COVID-19 Lockdown by Kamaryn Pecoraro
NOTES: Origins and Context | See Also
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Origins of this content
Contextualization
Animal Crossing had a massive successful launch, with 40.17 million downloads to
date. The colorful, simple, and child-like game provided a distraction from the harsh world we were all isolated from. Animal Crossing for me was an escape, allowing me to step into a colorful friendly world for a bit.

Tiger King took over Netflix with 34.3 million people watching the show over its first ten days on the streaming platform. The eccentric, odd, and hilarious show was at the top of most people's watchlist during quarantine. The protagonist was "Joe Exotic", who used his love of wild animals as a way to make money, even in unethical and morally wrong ways. He was later sentenced to 22 years for attempting to assassinate his rival animal lover Carole Baskin. How entertaining! I feel like only Tiger King could have captured such a wide audience, solely due to the outrageous nature of the show.
During the pandemic, we consumed large amounts of media that provided much needed comic relief during the lockdown phase of quarantine. COVID-19 has been disrupting our lives ever since the first recorded case in NYC on March 1st 2020. Before then, we were assured by government officials that the virus was nothing to worry about. Soon enough the virus sent us into a strict lockdown with all non essential businesses closing for months. My father works for the MTA, so he had to continue to go into work everyday, while my mom was able to work from home. Throughout lockdown we were all looking for entertainment, comfort, and distraction. Several pieces of media came out of this time, including Tiger King and Animal Crossing. I don't think the two most popular pieces of media being animal related is a coincidence. We often look to our own pets, or even therapy animals for comfort during highly stressful times.