We were all there for what, in my mind, should be deemed, “The Twilight Mess of ‘08. People were being sent to the office for fights between Team Jacob and Team Edward. I couldn’t watch TV without seeing Kristen Stewarts bored face all over my screen. Even Wal-Mart betrayed me with calendars, CD’s, candy bars, and multiple editions of Twilight covers everywhere.

As much as I despise Twilight, I understand that there were several people who liked it. I didn’t blame companies for wanting to promote itself with what was turning into a multi-billion dollar franchise. I wasn’t mad at the author for creating something popular.

I was, however, frustrated with the over-saturation.
This concept did not begin with Twilight. Twilight just happens to be something that caught everyone’s attention that I didn’t personally like. Every time something becomes popular, the market catches on to something, we see so much of it that we become sick of it. After Twilight came The Hunger Games, and suddenly the only books that were being published were ones centered about dystopian futures and tyrannical governments.

There is nothing wrong with going with what is popular and what works. It’s called good business sense. However, every time a new trend catches on, and everyone refuses to produce anything except related products, we shut out original products and ideas. That is where the real problem lies.

“Original ideas” is not code for “pushing the envelope a far as it can go,” either. In fact, trying to offend as many sensibilities as possible is another trend over-saturating media right now. The best thing we can do is encourage what we like, but be willing to try something outside the norm that doesn’t rely on shocks to disguise itself as originality.