The Fragmentation of Present Day Culture, and will Viral Media save the day? Does it Matter?

I was watching Gokujo Seitokai the other day, when i realized something interesting about present day culture. Now, Gokujo Seitokai is not exactly the best anime i've ever seen, but it does have its moments. I realized then that nobody else i knew, or likely to know, would be able to enjoy what i enjoyed, because i have created my own isolated culture.

Back in the old days, say, the Roman times, or perhaps the Medieval times, culture was simple. There was usually an authority on culture, say, the monarch of the day, and what was "cool" in court would usually spread. Arena fighting was in, so people flocked to the Colleseum and watched the gladiators fight. Corsets were in, so ladies of station all went and held their breaths to be fashionable.

But nowadays, you have a much more diverse and global culture. Things that are "cool" in other countries might eventually be popular in this country too, and vice versa. Movies, video games, fashion, cell phones, popular music, and so on and so forth, are all migrating at a literal light speed thanks to the internet. As a result, our culture is continuously fragmented. Not even MTV can save us this time ... we are creating our own Tower of Babel. It's quite possible that eventually, we will no longer know what other people are talking about.

"wtf, that pr0n totally pwned. gg, no re!"
"prawns? poned? geegee?"

"Have you seen the World Championships?"
"No, i was too busy listening to the podcast on iTunes."

Will Viral Media save the day? Viral Video is defined as "video content which gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email messages and media sharing websites." I will take Viral Media to mean media content which gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing. Personally, I think no. As there is more than one viral medium being spread on the internet at any given time, Viral Media will only create pockets of centralized culture, and even then, only briefly. A very quick example would be Goatse. The world is seperated into people who have seen Goatse and people who haven't ... but people who haven't would not have heard of it wouldn't know what we are talking about anyways. I suppose this is where Big Media comes in. What's also interesting is the Big Media Backlash that seems to be in fashion.

The most important question here though, is: does it really matter?

On one hand, i would have to say, yes. I think it's important for people to be able to communicate with each other.

In a very micro sense, the question would be whether it is possible for two people to have completely different experiences and talk about completely different things and feel as though they're connecting. Can effective socialization happen in a fragmented culture? I think that would depend a lot on the personalities of the two communicants. It's quite possible, but at the same time, impossible. Say, a person who can't live without watching American Idol, and a person who can't stand hearing about it. Does it mean they're perpetually doomed to be apart? No, it just means they may have to find some common grounds or issues to talk about.

In a macro sense, the question would be whether it is possible for culture to be so fragmented that one person has no idea what the other person has interests in. I think this is possible. If we think about the division of labour from an agricultural society, it was much simplier than the division of labour we have in present day North America. It's quite normal for us to have friends that have different professions than us. Even being on the same project with your co-workers doesn't ensure that you'll share the same information about the same ideas ...

On the other hand, i would have to say, no. Thanks to the internet, it's not very hard to share elements of your culture, whether they be from slashdot, the fark or kuro5hin, just to name a few "centers" of culture. Blogging makes it easy to transmit your ideas and share your particular "culture" ... just look how long it took mainstream media to pick up All your base are belong to us.