During the summer of 1969, my family lived in a duplex. My father had worked out a situation with our neighbor where the neighbor would bring his TV over to our side and we would hook both TV’s up. Their family would come over and on July 20, 1969, both families on two different broadcast networks, watched Neil Armstrong take his one small step. Four adults and five children watched history being made as did many, if not most of the people in America watched that event and as people returned to school, work, church and other social gatherings, would talk about the moon landing. News programs for weeks afterward would speak of the moon landing and what was happening and what was learned. Sociologists call that a Common Cultural Experience.
As cable TV took over from broadcast TV and everyone had 150+ channels to watch, the Common Cultural Experiences became fewer and fewer. With the advent of Netflix and YouTube the choices for what to watch has become so many and is expanding that it is possible for someone to go to work or school and find anyone who watched what they watched. In the same way, news magazines and newspapers have given way to the internet, Facebook, Twitter and all manner of news sources. This means that a person going to work might not find anyone who read the same news stories as they did. In other words, the Common Cultural Experience has faded from daily life.
There are several events that are still commonly experienced. Presidential elections are still followed by most everyone. Every person will have some opinion or something to say about a presidential election. Of course the political correctness and great divisions in American politics today means that the common cultural experience is lost on elections too. If someone is fortunate to find others that believe the same way they do, with regard to politics, then that small group can have a Common Cultural Experience.
Some TV shows have tried to recapture this common experience. When American Idol came to TV in 2002, it was poised to do the trick of creating a common experience, and it did. As the judges worked their way across America looking for contestants, local news programs covered the stories. When the national contest started, national TV news, written news, Facebook, Twitter and every other news source commented on what was happening. In a very real way, they had captured the Common Cultural Experience. People could talk about the show without being political and it brought America together for an hour once a week.
Still today, the king of Common Cultural Experience is the Super Bowl (which cannot be discussed without express written permission of the national football league). March Madness to a lesser extent also captures the attention of the nation, because President Obama had a bracket. But the Super Bowl still dominates. The news covers it, it is talked about and people get together, like we did in 1969, to watch the game. Whether people want to just see the commercials, or if they truly have a desire for one team to win, the Super Bowl is talked about for weeks ahead of time and for weeks after. It is truly a Common Cultural Experience.
There are several events that are still commonly experienced. Presidential elections are still followed by most everyone. Every person will have some opinion or something to say about a presidential election. Of course the political correctness and great divisions in American politics today means that the common cultural experience is lost on elections too. If someone is fortunate to find others that believe the same way they do, with regard to politics, then that small group can have a Common Cultural Experience.
Some TV shows have tried to recapture this common experience. When American Idol came to TV in 2002, it was poised to do the trick of creating a common experience, and it did. As the judges worked their way across America looking for contestants, local news programs covered the stories. When the national contest started, national TV news, written news, Facebook, Twitter and every other news source commented on what was happening. In a very real way, they had captured the Common Cultural Experience. People could talk about the show without being political and it brought America together for an hour once a week.
Still today, the king of Common Cultural Experience is the Super Bowl (which cannot be discussed without express written permission of the national football league). March Madness to a lesser extent also captures the attention of the nation, because President Obama had a bracket. But the Super Bowl still dominates. The news covers it, it is talked about and people get together, like we did in 1969, to watch the game. Whether people want to just see the commercials, or if they truly have a desire for one team to win, the Super Bowl is talked about for weeks ahead of time and for weeks after. It is truly a Common Cultural Experience.
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