If you were to ask me about my screen time … I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. The embarrassing amount of time I spend looking at my screen is taken up by movies, YouTube videos and, unfortunately, mostly TikToks. While I’ve been trying to cut down on my phone usage and “create, not consume,” media has always been a lifeline of sorts for me. Whether it’s a Youtube video playing while I eat, a five-minute TikTok break or a movie when I can’t sleep — visual content has always been something I turn to in my day-to-day, or to be honest, my minute-to-minute. In the midst of balancing my academic and personal life, I can always manage to find gaps in time to consume comforting content that gives me a break to laugh, reminisce, analyze or reflect. Here’s a snapshot of how I’ve been spending my time recently including some movies, YouTube videos and TikToks I’ve been watching to maintain comfort, curiosity or just plain distraction.
2025 Best Picture Nominees: Conclave and Anora
While my 2025 Best Picture was obviously Wicked, the Academy had other ideas … I’ll be honest, the 2025 Oscars Best Picture pool felt a little dodgy to me given that Emilia Pérez snagged a nomination, which held me back from watching the nominees — as I usually do — before the Oscars happen. After Anora won, I was really curious about what made it such a great movie, so I decided to watch it alongside other nominated films in the coming weeks. I got around to watching Anora, and while it was a well-made screwball comedy, I couldn’t bring myself to fully enjoy it because Anora/Ani’s character felt so underdeveloped. Mikey Madison is a powerhouse and did an amazing job at portraying Anora, but I think the only charm and depth the character possesses is solely because of Madison’s acting — not because of Sean Baker’s writing. On the plane back from Spring Break I watched Conclave. I wasn’t super excited to watch Conclave because I thought it was just going to be boring old white men fighting — which in part is what it was — but to my surprise I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Conclave gave me a sensation similar to watching RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 6, specifically), which is no easy feat, nor is it something I take lightly. The popes gathering, voting and campaigning gave “lipsync for your life,” and I loved every second of it; to quote my favorite Conclave Letterboxd review: “they were having a diva off!” The drama, the score and the cinematography all blew me away, and I’m surprised it only won one of its eight nominations; Conclave is a close second to Wicked in terms of my Best Picture 2025.
Commentary YouTube
For a few years now, I’ve been a big fan of commentary Youtubers; they’re my go-to to play in the background of any small daily task or when I’m eating alone. Some of my favorites are Drew Gooden, Kurtis Conner and Danny Gonzalez. These YouTubers make genuinely funny and informative content that I can watch to shut my brain off and laugh. Other than making high-quality content, their content has an aspect of rewatchability that makes their videos easy to turn to when I have a hard time choosing what to watch. Some of my favorite videos of theirs are: Kurtis Conner’s “WATERTOK: The Strangest Community on TikTok,” Drew Gooden’s “I bought every weird ad I saw for a month” and Danny Gonzalez’s “Tech Products That Should Not Exist.” Besides making great individual content, these specific content creators collaborate often, resulting in hilarious videos like one on Danny Gonzalez’s Youtube: “DIGTOK (w/ Drew Gooden and Kurtis Conner).”
Concert TikToks (Old Eras Tour TikToks and Lady Gaga’s Coachella Set)
Around this time two years ago I went to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Tampa, Florida. It was a legendary night that I remember almost nothing of because I was in such a haze of disbelief that I think my cognitive function clocked out for the night. Besides attending the tour, I would also watch live streams of it as it was happening; however, since the tour came to an end in December of last year, I’d barely seen any footage of it up until recently when I assume my TikTok algorithm somehow found out the anniversary of my Eras date was approaching. In the spirit of reminiscing I’ve found myself sitting through every video I get of the tour, briefly reliving the experience of a once in a lifetime concert and filling in those gaps I’d forgotten about!
On a more recent note, I stayed up till 4:00 am on Friday watching Lady Gaga’s enthralling Coachella set. I couldn’t take my eyes off the otherworldly artistry that Gaga turned out — as expected from her — but this was just on another level. The costuming, light design, choreography, set design and Lady Gaga’s superhuman stamina showed out for a spectacular performance filled with iconic songs and her newer hits from Mayhem. It’s now my mission to go to her Lady Gaga: The MAYHEM Ball tour and be transfixed by her artistry in person.
Paulina Delgado is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at [email protected]
“Are You Still Watching?” is a column spotlighting what the Cornell community has been streaming. It runs every Wednesday.
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