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While billions might watch a video on YouTube, it's not truly a shared experience unless it happens at the same time. And at least for me, even with live chat s

While billions might watch a video on YouTube, it's not truly a shared experience unless it happens at the same time. And at least for me, even with live chat scrolling in the speed of light to the side, it still doesn't feel the same as "Live TV" did. But as I commented elsewhere in the discussion, I still prefer the current experience.

nullstyle 4y ago
I assure you, I can start whistling baby shark and get more people to recognize it than I could if I started whistling the MASH theme. Baby shark is most definitely a shared experience.
- karmakaze 4y ago
  I've never heard of Baby shark, and watching the video can't recall ever hearing the tune. You may be living in a bubble, or we all are.
  - v-erne 4y ago
    Yeah, bubble called having children. There is not a single child in my daughter class that do not know this song by heart. And I'm sure that it's not like they learned it by randomly surfing web on their own - their parents introduced it to them. It's really bad song but still its good that it provides some shared context for each and every one of them.
    - usefulcat 4y ago
      I think my kids learned the song from other kids; I'm doubtful they've even seen the video(s). I know I haven't.
      - squeaky-clean 4y ago
        I don't even have kids and I know the song because I know people with kids.
    - lizardking 4y ago
      The YouTube algorithm won’t take long to serve it up if a viewer spends any amount of time watching programming for small children. It takes some time training the account that you don’t want anything related to baby shark to ever be suggested.
  - NikolaNovak 4y ago
    Parent bubble I assume :D
    - nullstyle 4y ago
      Uncle bubble ;)
  - nullstyle 4y ago
    We all are; mine is clearly bigger than yours.
  - Kiro 4y ago
    That's one of the most outrageous comments I've seen. Surely you must be trolling.
- SkipperCat 4y ago
  But did Baby Shark examine how America views war and its effects on the people who were not just in combat but trying to pick up the pieces of the destruction it produced? MASH was one of the first prime time TV shows that made people think about the cost of war and its ramification to society. As someone who has no kids, I haven't seen Baby Shark, so maybe it does that too.
  - nullstyle 4y ago
    The cultural worth of mash is immaterial to whether or not it has comparable reach to baby shark (i.e. whether or not baby shark is a “shared experience”).
    - autoexec 4y ago
      It does raise the question of whether or not the shallow memes and 2 minute youtube videos that make up our "shared experiences" today are comparable to the shared experiences of the past which typically conveyed more depth, information, and meaning.
      - krapp 4y ago
        Of course, there are plenty of worthwhile cultural expressions online - it would be disingenuous to write off the entirety of modern popular culture as "shallow memes and 2 minute youtube videos." What we lack isn't depth, information and meaning but the power of a unified pop-cultural zeitgeist created by having cultural expression gatekept and controlled by a few broadcasters and media conglomerates. If you want to know examine how America views war and its effects on the people who were not just in combat but trying to pick up the pieces of the destruction it produced, you have options beyond the blind, scheduled consumption of a single sitcom, however well written.
        autoexec 4y ago
        > Of course, there are plenty of worthwhile cultural expressions online this is true, but none of those are getting tens of billions of views. What spreads the farthest and the fastest are memes and quick hits of dopamine and rage. Those are what comprise our most shared experiences today. I think we'd agree that it's better to not be limited to only those things that have been curated for us by broadcasters and media conglomerates, but between our natural tendency to seek and spread low effort content and the curation of algorithmic gatekeepers optimizing to exploit that tendency our most seen and shared media typically ends up being far more shallow than it used to be. A few generations ago the most 'viewed video' was mankind's first steps on the moon, an incredible feat of science and engineering that ignited their imaginations. Today ours is Baby Shark.
marcosdumay 4y ago
It is shared if it the people reached it through the same memes, and took a similar conclusion. Time isn't relevant.
- BitwiseFool 4y ago
  I understand where you are coming from but something about it doesn't seem quite right. I remember watching footage of 9/11 on the news while the event was happening. A Gen Z-er watching the same footage on YouTube could be said to have shared the same experience under your stance, but I feel like most people would disagree. I picked a significant world event as my example, but I could also see this applied to culturally relevant memes from the past.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    I think live news events aren't a great example for this sort of thing. The experience of watching 9/11 live was that we didn't know what the hell was going on or what the aftermath would look like (a big terrorist in America was sort of unthinkable, after all). Knowing what the outcomes would be totally changes the experience.
    - BitwiseFool 4y ago
      For a more cultural example, I don't think today's teenagers would captivated by watching the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show in the same way as those who did back when it aired. Not just because they have already heard the songs, but because what it means to listen to music as an adolescent has changed so much. Watching people perform rock music on television isn't special, and songs about wanting to kiss and hold hands aren't considered risqué.
      - standyro 4y ago
        Not to offend, but there are plenty of these sorts of live cultural experiences for Gen Z that maybe you aren’t aware of and captivate millions of young audiences. Kissing and holding hands in the 60s seems like an artifact of a decade of undoing centuries of Christian religious repression in the west. You’re right that rock and roll is not novel anymore. Things change. Twitch live streamers share experiences with tens or hundreds of thousands of folks. For example, I can guarantee any millions of young kids who played Fortnite learned about the musician Travis Scott through that. Perhaps the era of mass media where 10-50+ million all tuned in at once is over, but there’s plenty of music and media that captivates many millions for live events.

nullstyle 4y ago

I assure you, I can start whistling baby shark and get more people to recognize it than I could if I started whistling the MASH theme. Baby shark is most definitely a shared experience.

karmakaze 4y ago
I've never heard of Baby shark, and watching the video can't recall ever hearing the tune. You may be living in a bubble, or we all are.
- v-erne 4y ago
  Yeah, bubble called having children. There is not a single child in my daughter class that do not know this song by heart. And I'm sure that it's not like they learned it by randomly surfing web on their own - their parents introduced it to them. It's really bad song but still its good that it provides some shared context for each and every one of them.
  - usefulcat 4y ago
    I think my kids learned the song from other kids; I'm doubtful they've even seen the video(s). I know I haven't.
    - squeaky-clean 4y ago
      I don't even have kids and I know the song because I know people with kids.
  - lizardking 4y ago
    The YouTube algorithm won’t take long to serve it up if a viewer spends any amount of time watching programming for small children. It takes some time training the account that you don’t want anything related to baby shark to ever be suggested.
- NikolaNovak 4y ago
  Parent bubble I assume :D
  - nullstyle 4y ago
    Uncle bubble ;)
- nullstyle 4y ago
  We all are; mine is clearly bigger than yours.
- Kiro 4y ago
  That's one of the most outrageous comments I've seen. Surely you must be trolling.
SkipperCat 4y ago
But did Baby Shark examine how America views war and its effects on the people who were not just in combat but trying to pick up the pieces of the destruction it produced? MASH was one of the first prime time TV shows that made people think about the cost of war and its ramification to society. As someone who has no kids, I haven't seen Baby Shark, so maybe it does that too.
- nullstyle 4y ago
  The cultural worth of mash is immaterial to whether or not it has comparable reach to baby shark (i.e. whether or not baby shark is a “shared experience”).
  - autoexec 4y ago
    It does raise the question of whether or not the shallow memes and 2 minute youtube videos that make up our "shared experiences" today are comparable to the shared experiences of the past which typically conveyed more depth, information, and meaning.
    - krapp 4y ago
      Of course, there are plenty of worthwhile cultural expressions online - it would be disingenuous to write off the entirety of modern popular culture as "shallow memes and 2 minute youtube videos." What we lack isn't depth, information and meaning but the power of a unified pop-cultural zeitgeist created by having cultural expression gatekept and controlled by a few broadcasters and media conglomerates. If you want to know examine how America views war and its effects on the people who were not just in combat but trying to pick up the pieces of the destruction it produced, you have options beyond the blind, scheduled consumption of a single sitcom, however well written.
      - autoexec 4y ago
        > Of course, there are plenty of worthwhile cultural expressions online this is true, but none of those are getting tens of billions of views. What spreads the farthest and the fastest are memes and quick hits of dopamine and rage. Those are what comprise our most shared experiences today. I think we'd agree that it's better to not be limited to only those things that have been curated for us by broadcasters and media conglomerates, but between our natural tendency to seek and spread low effort content and the curation of algorithmic gatekeepers optimizing to exploit that tendency our most seen and shared media typically ends up being far more shallow than it used to be. A few generations ago the most 'viewed video' was mankind's first steps on the moon, an incredible feat of science and engineering that ignited their imaginations. Today ours is Baby Shark.

marcosdumay 4y ago

It is shared if it the people reached it through the same memes, and took a similar conclusion. Time isn't relevant.

BitwiseFool 4y ago
I understand where you are coming from but something about it doesn't seem quite right. I remember watching footage of 9/11 on the news while the event was happening. A Gen Z-er watching the same footage on YouTube could be said to have shared the same experience under your stance, but I feel like most people would disagree. I picked a significant world event as my example, but I could also see this applied to culturally relevant memes from the past.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  I think live news events aren't a great example for this sort of thing. The experience of watching 9/11 live was that we didn't know what the hell was going on or what the aftermath would look like (a big terrorist in America was sort of unthinkable, after all). Knowing what the outcomes would be totally changes the experience.
  - BitwiseFool 4y ago
    For a more cultural example, I don't think today's teenagers would captivated by watching the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show in the same way as those who did back when it aired. Not just because they have already heard the songs, but because what it means to listen to music as an adolescent has changed so much. Watching people perform rock music on television isn't special, and songs about wanting to kiss and hold hands aren't considered risqué.
    - standyro 4y ago
      Not to offend, but there are plenty of these sorts of live cultural experiences for Gen Z that maybe you aren’t aware of and captivate millions of young audiences. Kissing and holding hands in the 60s seems like an artifact of a decade of undoing centuries of Christian religious repression in the west. You’re right that rock and roll is not novel anymore. Things change. Twitch live streamers share experiences with tens or hundreds of thousands of folks. For example, I can guarantee any millions of young kids who played Fortnite learned about the musician Travis Scott through that. Perhaps the era of mass media where 10-50+ million all tuned in at once is over, but there’s plenty of music and media that captivates many millions for live events.