4 ms·
I grew up in a strict evangelical family with tv time limits, only the 4 major over the air stations (cable tv was a tool of satan etc), and overall very restri
by jasonwatkinspdx 2y ago
I grew up in a strict evangelical family with tv time limits, only the 4 major over the air stations (cable tv was a tool of satan etc), and overall very restricted access to media.
As a kid it definitely made me feel set apart in an uncomfortable way.
I still have this mildly as an adult. One example where I notice this most acutely is when I was doing a regular bar trivia night with friends in the neighborhood. I could help with science, history, etc, but with many of the pop culture questions I was the only person on our team that didn't immediately know the answer.
Again, not the most important thing in the world, but there is a feeling of separateness I've had as a result. I've felt like I was "catching up" to culture all my life. If I could flip a switch and change it I would.
I do think smartphones are a bit different than all that though. There's something psychologically unsettling about doomscrolling this new TikTok style content. A couple times now I've gotten sucked into Youtube Shorts and then realized I just spent a couple hours on it in a mental fog. I find the idea of kids as young as the headline getting sucked in like that unsettling. I'm not a parent but I can see how it's not a simple dilema.
- robocat 2y agoShared common culture doesn't seem to exist much now. Even popular movies are only watched by a small percentage of people. How many here watched the latest episode of XYZ on TV last night? Plays hardly exist, few people read books (or if they do, not much in common (time/genre/recency)). Anyone who has lived in another country should be able to sympathise with what it feels like to lack shared common culture. I was in Spain and even if someone explained their reference to something from their childhood (like a TV program), it often made no sense to me. A friend mentioned they served Count Homoginised a coffee the other day. Only people from my country at a similar age to me (and possibly my city) would understand who he was.
- CatWChainsaw 2y agoAnd the pipe dream of having personalized AI-generated coooontent to enjoy means that it will be nigh impossible to have "common interests" with anyone else.