Humans get vastly more efficient at absorbing narrative inputs, even as they get better at producing it. And as narrative environments increase in sophistication, you do not need to actually be paying direct attention to be influenced by them

This, I think, began with improved and cheaper printing techniques that emerged between 1850 and 1900, giving rise to all the familiar print media of today: paperback novels, magazines, newspapers. This was the “Big Data” moment in the history of narrative cultures. The volume, velocity, and variety of narrative production all increased suddenly

More importantly, the balance between bottom-up and top-down narrative traditions shifted somewhat. Printing allowed more top-down narrative traditions to emerge and take root.