Ep. 382: Is the Internet Becoming Television?

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Education, Self-improvement, Technology

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2025

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last month, Derek Thompson published an intriguing essay that made waves in technology criticism circles. It was titled: “Everything is Television.” In today’s episode, Cal takes a closer look at this essay, unpacking and expanding Thompson’s arguments, and ultimately concluding with a series of predictions about what to expect next from the internet. He then answers listener questions and discusses the five books he read in November 2025. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia Deep Dive: Is the Internet Becoming Television [00:03] Can AI reduce distractions for developers? [38:32] How do I time block in a job with heavy interruptions? [44:03] How should I manage what I read, watch and listen to for books, magazines, shows, and podcasts? [47:31] How should I cope with family and friends always scrolling TikTok during the holiday season? [52:50] Does endless scrolling make people less motivated to be physically active? [54:48] CASE STUDY: Developing a Deep Life after selling a company [56:15] CALL: Eliminating Instagram in graduate school [1:04:19] NOVEMBER BOOKS: The 5 Books Cal Read in November 2025 [1:09:08] Realityland (David Koening)Becoming Mary Poppins (Todd James Pierce)Tradition in an Untraditional Age (Rabbi Jonathan Sacks)What is the Bible? (Rob Bell)Notes on Being a Man (Scott Galloway) Links: Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at calnewport.com/slowGet a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba?flowingdata.com/2025/10/03/passed-peak-social-media-maybe/derekthompson.org/p/why-everything-became-televisionyoutube.com/watch?v=QaiecWzeHFMcsmonitor.com/1985/0610/z2vid1.html Thanks to our Sponsors: cozyearth.com/DEEP (for up to 40% off)auraframes.com (Use code “DEEPQUESTIONS” to get $35 off)indeed.com/deepgrammarly.com/podcast Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Back in October, the journalist Derek Thompson published an intriguing essay on his substack that was titled, Everything is Television.
0:12.8	Now, it created a bit of a stir among those who study technology and the internet for a living.
0:18.0	Here's Derek, actually, his own word words summarizing the thesis of this article.
0:22.6	A spooky convergence is happening in media. Everything that is not already television is turning
0:29.0	into television. So what did Derek mean by this? This is the question we're going to answer today.
0:36.0	I'm going to both unpack and expand on Thompson's
0:39.6	arguments and then add my own conclusions, including three predictions about what I think is going
0:45.4	to happen next. Hopefully by the end of our discussion, you'll have a brand new way of understanding
0:50.4	the sort of vaguely distressing but difficult to define changes that seem to have been happening in internet culture in recent years and have some ideas about what to expect and what to do to best react to the future.
1:02.1	So let's get into it.
1:03.8	As always, I'm Cal Newport.
1:05.7	And this is Deep questions.
1:25.2	Today's episode is the internet becoming television, and what does this mean for you?
1:28.9	All right. So I want to start by really diving into the big points from Derek Thompson's articles to see if we can make sense of what he's saying here.
1:36.6	Fortunately, on a recent episode of Thompson's podcast, plain English, which is really good and you should listen to it, especially the episodes where I've been a guest, Thompson read his piece out loud.
1:47.1	So we can actually hear passages from his article read in his own voice.
1:53.4	All right.
1:53.6	So I want to go back and I want to replay that initial clip because this is where Thompson started
1:59.4	his article.
2:00.8	So Jesse, let's hear that original clip again.
2:03.0	A spooky convergence is happening in media.
2:06.2	Everything that is not already television is turning into television.
	...

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