Streaming services realized that a hit is a hit, regardless of language. This has flooded Western popular media with international flavors, introducing audiences to telenovelas, K-dramas, Bollywood, and Nordic noir. The result is a more culturally diverse ecosystem, but also a homogenization of storytelling tropes as producers chase universal formulas that translate across borders.
As consumers of popular media, our greatest skill in the coming years will not be finding content, but curating it. We will need to learn to turn off the notification, to choose depth over breadth, and to seek out art that challenges rather than merely validates.