The Death of the Common Experience

Who would have thought Stephen Colbert would have me up thinking about shared experience? Last night's episode (link - click on "cable") was a knowing nod towards netizens everywhere, and left me thinking of cultural and marketing repercussions of our loss of commonality.

Colbert made the point that Jaffe made in Life After the 30 Second Spot; our television hits are not the pop-culture phenomena they once were.  In the 50's, 62% of the nation could be found snuggled in front of their television sets for Lucy; in the 80's, still 51% saw the Cosby Show; but today, only 25% sit to watch a top-rated show like CSI, and those numbers will continue to dwindle, probably faster than ever.

Obviously, advertising's reach and cultural place has diminished, as well.  It's not as easy to find a plop, plop, fizz, fizz these days. 

Our homes and our nationality are less and less defined by the experiences we share en masse, but resemble more of a loose affiliation of geographical boundaries.  Of course, the boundary has always been there, but we defined ourselves based on more than that.  Our cities', states', country's personalities blurred the lines, or at least, made them less necessary.

While this does open us up to an explosion of choice and a celebration of individuality, our fragmented media could point to a fractured nation.  Now that it's easier to find like-minded people all over the world, and build communities based on our interests, not necessarily by location, there is a much greater risk in the trap of the confirmation bias.  Instead of challenging ourselves, we, by human nature, seek to confirm our own ideas, and gravitate towards those that help us towards that end.

Unless we actively invite opposition, it could be likely that we further dig in our heels when we're wrong, and fail to develop our ideas when we're right.  It's incumbent upon ourselves to connect and learn, not just from our congratulators, but from the detractors and naysayers, because they may be the ones that push us to greater things that we may not have accomplished otherwise.  Our affiliations will then be measured by our willingness to share and debate, not the similarity of our thoughts. 

Luckily, we live in a country that celebrates these freedoms, even if they may be under attack right now.

photo from kitsh via flickr