Followup
First I'm going to explain briefly what made my day so interesting, then I am going to go ranty on this half-baked article about the death of mass culture.
So most of you know that I work with an autistic man at church every couple of Sundays; he's both autistic and mentally retarded, so when the kids are let out for their service, we take him into a separate service by himself with two helpers, so we can sing, read the toddler's Bible, and basically talk to him about Christ at his own pace. It gives his parents a break, gives him a calm and meaningful worship time, keeps him from disrupting the service, and is just basically a ministry that I'm proud of my church for thinking of. Well, we just moved his worship space from an empty classroom to the back of the social hall, for a number of reasons, but today when we got down there the place was still just crawling with people, including the next table over with three little babies. He had a really hard time concentrating, was obviously agitated for most of the hour, and toward the end it got too much and he bit me in the arm. It didn't break the skin much, but I went in to the ER anyway, where they gave me a tetanus shot and some antibiotics, and by the time I got home it was probably four in the afternoon. It doesn't hurt much, except when I brush it, but the bruise is epic. They got my old Sunday school teacher to drive me to the hospital, so we had a good old time chatting in the waiting room. So I got to chat with all kinds of people, and then ran into an old friend in the grocery store, and came home and made pie and started laundry, so I just basically had a really great day despite, you know, being bitten. And then I burned myself on the oven, so things are back to normal.
Re: the death of mass culture
Two words: well, duh.
It isn't that there isn't mass culture, it's that there are many mass cultures, that don't intersect by demographic anymore. One of my biggest gripes with the modern world is how much time you have to spend just to be aware. No matter what area you're lacking in, there are people who expect you to know about it. Not even maliciously! Subcultures are so good at uniting members and floating their icons that it's surprising when an outsider doesn't recognize them. And as subcultures get closer with the Internet, niche TV, and niche radio, it's easier to believe that your subculture is the mass culture. And then you meet someone who's never heard of something, and it's a surprise.
So I have to keep up with NPR to talk to my dork buddies, and watch certain TV programs to talk with my geek buddies, and eye up the tabloids to talk with my coworkers, and scan movie news to talk to my other coworkers, and stay hooked into various websites just so I know what the heck anyone's talking about on them, and also keep up on the news just so that I can feel like a responsible person.
Maybe I'm unusually obsessive about keeping up with things, but I'm not alone. Everyone else is scrambling to intake media so they can talk to their respective buddies and coworkers and be responsible, but it's different for everyone based on subculture, so there can't be a set of information that would cover everyone--mass media is dead because it doesn't cover everyone's bases.
The author cites a "lack of talent", but I'd say there's too much talent. There's too much of it in too many different places. Great musicians in all styles, not just a few. Great television on dozens of different stations, with dozens of target audiences. A movie industry prolific enough that if you only like one genre, you could stay within it and still see plenty of movies in a year.
I almost suspect that the author of the article has looked around and discovered his subcultures don't mesh with his peers' subcultures, and is freaking out.
But the thing is, the really great stuff does still rise to the top. My grandmother just emailed me to recommend The Kite Runner--its popularity took its sweet time getting to her, but it got there. My parents saw the Miss Teen USA clip, and they don't even have YouTube. Everybody knows who the Simpsons are.
And if globalization means many competing "mass cultures", then that's wonderful. There will always be something more to learn.
So most of you know that I work with an autistic man at church every couple of Sundays; he's both autistic and mentally retarded, so when the kids are let out for their service, we take him into a separate service by himself with two helpers, so we can sing, read the toddler's Bible, and basically talk to him about Christ at his own pace. It gives his parents a break, gives him a calm and meaningful worship time, keeps him from disrupting the service, and is just basically a ministry that I'm proud of my church for thinking of. Well, we just moved his worship space from an empty classroom to the back of the social hall, for a number of reasons, but today when we got down there the place was still just crawling with people, including the next table over with three little babies. He had a really hard time concentrating, was obviously agitated for most of the hour, and toward the end it got too much and he bit me in the arm. It didn't break the skin much, but I went in to the ER anyway, where they gave me a tetanus shot and some antibiotics, and by the time I got home it was probably four in the afternoon. It doesn't hurt much, except when I brush it, but the bruise is epic. They got my old Sunday school teacher to drive me to the hospital, so we had a good old time chatting in the waiting room. So I got to chat with all kinds of people, and then ran into an old friend in the grocery store, and came home and made pie and started laundry, so I just basically had a really great day despite, you know, being bitten. And then I burned myself on the oven, so things are back to normal.
Re: the death of mass culture
Two words: well, duh.
It isn't that there isn't mass culture, it's that there are many mass cultures, that don't intersect by demographic anymore. One of my biggest gripes with the modern world is how much time you have to spend just to be aware. No matter what area you're lacking in, there are people who expect you to know about it. Not even maliciously! Subcultures are so good at uniting members and floating their icons that it's surprising when an outsider doesn't recognize them. And as subcultures get closer with the Internet, niche TV, and niche radio, it's easier to believe that your subculture is the mass culture. And then you meet someone who's never heard of something, and it's a surprise.
So I have to keep up with NPR to talk to my dork buddies, and watch certain TV programs to talk with my geek buddies, and eye up the tabloids to talk with my coworkers, and scan movie news to talk to my other coworkers, and stay hooked into various websites just so I know what the heck anyone's talking about on them, and also keep up on the news just so that I can feel like a responsible person.
Maybe I'm unusually obsessive about keeping up with things, but I'm not alone. Everyone else is scrambling to intake media so they can talk to their respective buddies and coworkers and be responsible, but it's different for everyone based on subculture, so there can't be a set of information that would cover everyone--mass media is dead because it doesn't cover everyone's bases.
The author cites a "lack of talent", but I'd say there's too much talent. There's too much of it in too many different places. Great musicians in all styles, not just a few. Great television on dozens of different stations, with dozens of target audiences. A movie industry prolific enough that if you only like one genre, you could stay within it and still see plenty of movies in a year.
I almost suspect that the author of the article has looked around and discovered his subcultures don't mesh with his peers' subcultures, and is freaking out.
But the thing is, the really great stuff does still rise to the top. My grandmother just emailed me to recommend The Kite Runner--its popularity took its sweet time getting to her, but it got there. My parents saw the Miss Teen USA clip, and they don't even have YouTube. Everybody knows who the Simpsons are.
And if globalization means many competing "mass cultures", then that's wonderful. There will always be something more to learn.