Last Night’s Episode
There was once a shared culture when tens of millions of people would tune in to the same program on TV and then discuss what was happening the next day. If you missed it, there was no replay and that was it.
However, when you were able to catch the episode, there was anticipation and excitement over discussing the show with friends at work or school. Imagine watching a recap episode and leaving a comment on YouTube or Clubhouse but, you know, in real life.
That’s not the case any more. First, VCRs allowed for time shifting content consumption, then more content became available, then the Internet, then YouTube, then TikTok. Soon, tailored content generation for each user will make what we watch and the content completely different. There won’t be one version of a show to compare notes but potentially infinite versions.
What this might do is isolate us from each other even more and we then might need our own AI generated friends to converse with on what a particular show meant.
