Are political events and large-scale disasters now the only form of collective experience?
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One thing which stands out as a breaking point for me is realising I'd been reading the same headlines about hospitals potentially reaching capacity for months. I don't doubt they may reach capacity, but I also don't think there's much to be gained from my reading the same speculative reports on a weekly, or even daily, basis.
luka
Well-known member
That's good to hear. I was worried about that behaviour
sus
Moderator
Great Op. I feel like Netflix has really jumped in cultural weight this year, just judging from Twitter trends and friends' behavior, because they manage to capture a critical mass, you get a community, the media coverage is all sync'd up before&after The Queen's Gambit is dropped, or whatever, there's a big buzz cycle—obviously just the new media model re-discovering new tactics to implement old media strategies, but they capture it well. I think pro sports viewing is up a lot too, similar thing. Obviously this all premised on more time to watch media, but it does seem like people still find ways to sync up—even if it's with people they don't know personally, or with celebrities + media writers, or family members trying to keep communication open during the pandemic.(I guess we touched on some of this in the "willing on the catastrophe" thread, but I think it's a different angle.)
I was flicking through old threads in Art, Literature & Film last night and noticed there used to be a lot more discussion of stuff like specific BBC shows, films on at the time, new books, exhibitions and so on. I think the decline of that sort of collective experience of culture's perhaps come up in the dematerialisation thread and certainly in the media - Game of Thrones being talked about as the last "water cooler show" comes to mind - but it really hit me when thinking about what we have been discussing... Coronavirus, Brexit, Trump, George Floyd... The only thing we're all still watching, reading and thinking about is the news, specifically very big, very frightening, very loud news. There doesn't seem to be anything outside it anymore. I don't even know what's on TV these days. It just isn't important. If someone asks me whether I've seen or heard something, it's inevitably a Trump quote or some horrific event rather than a film or song.
It's not a dazzlingly original observation, we're all familiar with Ballard, DeLillo etc, but every so often I find these things register on a gut level. Every conversation I have now seems to be about news and politics, and when I do talk about something else it feels as though what everyone's really thinking about is news and politics. It's inescapable.
The Bachelor is doing really well too, people have Bachelor/ette parties with their pods. I didn't see that one coming, pretty soon everyone I know and everyone my brother knows (very different social scenes), all these guys are getting together to watch Bachelor together.
I recently started using Netflix again after not having it for a while and I'm bowled over by how much of the stuff on there's now original content. It was inevitable, but still. I remember when it was mostly films from traditional studios, now it's basically all Netflix. There's films on there with huge stars which I've never even heard of or seen advertised or discussed.
sus
Moderator
It's interesting—where once the critics of New York past (Randolph Bourne's “Trans-national America,” 1916, or Dwight Macdonald, “Masscult and Midcult,” 1960) warned of American monoculture, today worry over atomization, tribal divisions, unbridgeable gulfs. And all these seeming paradoxes like, at the same time, a global AirBnB "airspace" aesthetic colonizing the entire planet.
It's both though, isn't it? There's a huge amount of content, but it's ultimately owned and funded by a handful of companies and there's a consistent tone to it.
sus
Moderator
So it's like there's one big monoculture elephant and we're three blind men rubbing down its parts
constant escape
winter withered, warm
But seemingly its an increasingly egalitarian tone, no? Center-stage, high profile series with more meaningfully diverse representation?
sus
Moderator
Yes, incredibly mediocre re-tellings of the genius myth but now for young women
constant escape
winter withered, warm
Yeah, and I can see where some of that is to be expected, seeing as its a somewhat untapped market.
And someone tell me if I'm getting ahead of myself, but it sure seems like the liberal upper-middle / upper class is getting substantially more egalitarian, in terms of media representation. And not in a superficial, token way. Am I overlooking something? Being too wishful here?
Women and minorities are better represented, but you still seem to be watching mostly well-connected people from the middle to upper class.