I feel like the skyrocketing cost of sporting event tickets along with their crazy new TV rights deals have something to do with the fact that they are the last bit of monoculture we have left in the United States from before the pandemic. Ironically, the segmented streaming and cost to actually attend in person is slowly destroying it at the same time haha.
The monolith of the smartphone looms behind all of this. What we each personally see on a screen is at least as fragmented as is described here, but the effects of smartphone usage sit outside whatever the screen happens to be showing to any one person. If there is any "common touchstone", it is what these devices are generally doing to us, and not just in what media they incidentally deliver to an individual.
In terms of what’s replaced zeitgeist of tv & movies, I’m suprised you didn’t pick up any signal around the growing popularity of gaming.
Interesting analysis. The Wall-E reference pretty well captures where we are headed.
I feel like the skyrocketing cost of sporting event tickets along with their crazy new TV rights deals have something to do with the fact that they are the last bit of monoculture we have left in the United States from before the pandemic. Ironically, the segmented streaming and cost to actually attend in person is slowly destroying it at the same time haha.
I love research and statistics but I often don't put enough time into charting it down, so all of this was very satisfying thank you for sharing !
A thought on Music, and it might apply elsewhere.
Services like Pandora offer tons of information about the Artist and Song I am listening to.
Full lyrics, other songs, Discography, etc. so not using Wikipedia does not prove (at least my) reduction of interest via Wikipedia searches.
The monolith of the smartphone looms behind all of this. What we each personally see on a screen is at least as fragmented as is described here, but the effects of smartphone usage sit outside whatever the screen happens to be showing to any one person. If there is any "common touchstone", it is what these devices are generally doing to us, and not just in what media they incidentally deliver to an individual.