Thanks for the puff of "fresh air,“ voicing this trend of a sort of toxic individualism, and for existing as a counter-culture that is highly valuable today. As our social groups are subdivided into a minutiae of interests and preferences, and with a dwindling ability (or interest) to empathize, understand, or connect, we seem to be diluting any substance there once was in our collective culture into a formless, directionless ˋArmy of Ones’. Further than merely fearing to offend thy neighbor by sharing views or interests, I think we’ve now trodden into territory of something worse... fearing to bore our neighbor with anything outside their easily cultivated and fed pallet of individualized interests.
We used to gently self-mock our teenage selves in the 90’s, ‘I’m different... just like everybody else.’ The celebration of our uniqueness has contributed to the collective loneliness.
Lots to think about. Whenever I read something like this I tend to think in what places is this not happening. Sports comes to mind. The big teams and top players are still holding the attention of large percentages of people. It maybe more global with European soccer grabbing more followers outside Europe than ever.
I don’t have data on this and as someone without the sports fan gene I don’t comprehend it well.
It will also be interesting to see if the growing trend in schools banning phones has an effect.
I applaud you for giving voice to what many of us are feeling; extreme and uncomfortable alienation. I am perplexed by the excessive arguments that make no sense. I don’t want to engage, just stay in my comfortable bubble. These days, I have to be ready to get out of my comfort zone and understand what needs to be done. However, it did bring me some comfort by you naming and explaining the discord. Thank you.
As always, a thoroughly compelling read. Sorry I was late getting to it. Blame the holidays that are anything but.
Normally I don’t have anything to add to yours. This time though you’ve done something I’ve pondered too – what to call the Information Era’s replacement. I only wish I’d thought of “Centrifugal Era”. In my much humbler Substack (https://leadingmanagers.substack.com/p/introducing-leading-managers), I called it the Ideas Era. Now I’m in a quandary. Centrifugal is more descriptive of what’s happening but “ideas” is next on the classical road to wisdom: data, information, ideas, opinions, knowledge, and wisdom. More to the point, ideas are the software of eras.
I suggest there are 3Vs of ideas – volume, velocity, and vector. The hardware of industrial era was steam powered but its genesis was the volume of ideas built up by a couple of centuries of moveable type. Electricity accelerated the velocity of ideas to light speed begetting the information age and enabling mass distribution of curated ideas – mislabelled “mass communication” at the time. The centrifugal/ideas era and real mass communication arrived when the internet shifted the vector of ideas from vertical to horizontal. The most obvious result is that it is easier to spread fantasy and harder to explain reality because we can each broadcast and narrow receive. But we can also do things alone or in lose affiliations that once required us to belong to an organization.
Be that as it may, we know we’re in a new era. What’s should it be called?
Whew!! I am tired after reading this. It's just packed with information. I saw myself in your descriptions time after time. Lots to think about. Thank you.
Many thanks from one still clinging to the dizzying merry-go-round of centripetal temptations. The story of Frank Robinson & ‘Psychiana’ may not be familiar, but it is an object lesson in the profitable mass manipulation of body & soul through radio in the 1930s.
Had the producers of Gilligan's Island really been set on making your point they'd have called it the SS MINOW and turned it into a nice running gag on Gilligan's atrocious spelling. Inside joke. Gunsmoke is funnier at least in the first season, each episode of which opens with Matt walking through the graveyard considering all the men he'd planted. Kind of ironic these days, given the title of the show. I think America sold its brains: a little brainwashing for cheap entertainment. How much would it have cost if everyone had just paid per view? I think however much it would've been a bargin.
Welcome back. Just as the centripetal forces are withering, the centrifugal ones don't seem to be lasting. Rather, as social media get bigger, they can become centripetal (You MUST follow person X for FOMO!) Then they become boring and predictable. Then they decay -- MySpace, Pinterest, Facebook, now X/Twitter. How many times a day does anyone want to hear the same song, same fashion, same rant (even if you agree)?
I’m a shade too young to have been faced with the choice in the 80s, but I was one of the (arguably insufferable about it) « I don’t even have a TV » people when I first left my parents’ house -- I think that phenomenon too might have become irrelevant as now people watch whatever it is they choose to watch on whatever screen they choose to have, and everyone has at least some kind of screen.
Thanks for the puff of "fresh air,“ voicing this trend of a sort of toxic individualism, and for existing as a counter-culture that is highly valuable today. As our social groups are subdivided into a minutiae of interests and preferences, and with a dwindling ability (or interest) to empathize, understand, or connect, we seem to be diluting any substance there once was in our collective culture into a formless, directionless ˋArmy of Ones’. Further than merely fearing to offend thy neighbor by sharing views or interests, I think we’ve now trodden into territory of something worse... fearing to bore our neighbor with anything outside their easily cultivated and fed pallet of individualized interests.
We used to gently self-mock our teenage selves in the 90’s, ‘I’m different... just like everybody else.’ The celebration of our uniqueness has contributed to the collective loneliness.
Lots to think about. Whenever I read something like this I tend to think in what places is this not happening. Sports comes to mind. The big teams and top players are still holding the attention of large percentages of people. It maybe more global with European soccer grabbing more followers outside Europe than ever.
I don’t have data on this and as someone without the sports fan gene I don’t comprehend it well.
It will also be interesting to see if the growing trend in schools banning phones has an effect.
I applaud you for giving voice to what many of us are feeling; extreme and uncomfortable alienation. I am perplexed by the excessive arguments that make no sense. I don’t want to engage, just stay in my comfortable bubble. These days, I have to be ready to get out of my comfort zone and understand what needs to be done. However, it did bring me some comfort by you naming and explaining the discord. Thank you.
Just a question how many people work for General Motors versus how many full time YouTubers are there?
Time to go fishing...
Valuable writing and thought provoking. Thank you.
As always, a thoroughly compelling read. Sorry I was late getting to it. Blame the holidays that are anything but.
Normally I don’t have anything to add to yours. This time though you’ve done something I’ve pondered too – what to call the Information Era’s replacement. I only wish I’d thought of “Centrifugal Era”. In my much humbler Substack (https://leadingmanagers.substack.com/p/introducing-leading-managers), I called it the Ideas Era. Now I’m in a quandary. Centrifugal is more descriptive of what’s happening but “ideas” is next on the classical road to wisdom: data, information, ideas, opinions, knowledge, and wisdom. More to the point, ideas are the software of eras.
I suggest there are 3Vs of ideas – volume, velocity, and vector. The hardware of industrial era was steam powered but its genesis was the volume of ideas built up by a couple of centuries of moveable type. Electricity accelerated the velocity of ideas to light speed begetting the information age and enabling mass distribution of curated ideas – mislabelled “mass communication” at the time. The centrifugal/ideas era and real mass communication arrived when the internet shifted the vector of ideas from vertical to horizontal. The most obvious result is that it is easier to spread fantasy and harder to explain reality because we can each broadcast and narrow receive. But we can also do things alone or in lose affiliations that once required us to belong to an organization.
Be that as it may, we know we’re in a new era. What’s should it be called?
And thanks for the great content.
Doug
Whew!! I am tired after reading this. It's just packed with information. I saw myself in your descriptions time after time. Lots to think about. Thank you.
Many thanks from one still clinging to the dizzying merry-go-round of centripetal temptations. The story of Frank Robinson & ‘Psychiana’ may not be familiar, but it is an object lesson in the profitable mass manipulation of body & soul through radio in the 1930s.
Had the producers of Gilligan's Island really been set on making your point they'd have called it the SS MINOW and turned it into a nice running gag on Gilligan's atrocious spelling. Inside joke. Gunsmoke is funnier at least in the first season, each episode of which opens with Matt walking through the graveyard considering all the men he'd planted. Kind of ironic these days, given the title of the show. I think America sold its brains: a little brainwashing for cheap entertainment. How much would it have cost if everyone had just paid per view? I think however much it would've been a bargin.
Dan, this is a very thought-provoking piece. And you may have already seen this piece by Nicole MacAdam - https://www.thehonesttalk.ca/honest-thoughts/why-i-left-my-dream-job-nicole-macadam/ , who is a victim of our new reality.
Welcome back. Just as the centripetal forces are withering, the centrifugal ones don't seem to be lasting. Rather, as social media get bigger, they can become centripetal (You MUST follow person X for FOMO!) Then they become boring and predictable. Then they decay -- MySpace, Pinterest, Facebook, now X/Twitter. How many times a day does anyone want to hear the same song, same fashion, same rant (even if you agree)?
I’m a shade too young to have been faced with the choice in the 80s, but I was one of the (arguably insufferable about it) « I don’t even have a TV » people when I first left my parents’ house -- I think that phenomenon too might have become irrelevant as now people watch whatever it is they choose to watch on whatever screen they choose to have, and everyone has at least some kind of screen.
Thank you for this great insightful piece.