Narrative Overload?

If you know me at all, you know that I love storytelling. I believe that our lives are a collection of colliding narratives and subnarratives. And living in a media culture with constantly evolving digital technologies, stories are thriving. But are we possibly suffering from narrative overload? Coming from the perspective of a movie writer of such classics as Raging Bull, Paul Schrader writes...

Storytelling began as ceremony and evolved into ritual. It was commercialized in the middle ages, became big business in the 19th century and an international industry in the 20th. Today it is the ubiquitous wallpaper of the postmodern era.

Find his full story HERE.

Schrader's article is more concerned with what media forms narrative will take in the future. And I agree with his conclusion that narrative will continue to go strong in the future but "mutated."

But the article did make me think about just how many media stories we are bombarded with from reality shows to video games to movies, television, hulu etc. What affect do all of these stories have on our connections with people, relationships, politics and even emotions and psyche. Are we becoming part of the wallpaper?