The Splintering of Shared Cultural References
As the number of potential cultural references increases their usefulness in communicating with each other can be limited.
Amid a conversation I was having with a group of friends at a bar yesterday, I suddenly realized something. We are living in a world of decreasing shared cultural references.
Here is how Fiveable describes cultural references.
Cultural references are allusions or connections made to the values, beliefs, practices, and artifacts of a particular culture within a text or piece of art. They enrich the narrative by providing depth and context, allowing readers to connect with the work on a more personal level through their own experiences and cultural knowledge.
I consider cultural references to extend far beyond text or art. All around us are cultural references to which we regularly allude. The written word and art are but two of them.
So, what prompted my thinking about shared cultural references?
As I was having a lively conversation at the aforementioned bar among a group of 8–10 of us circled around each other, varying in age from early 20s to me as the oldest (71), various cultural references were tossed out that it became clear were not readily recognized by some of the others in the group.
One reference was a popular meme going around, especially on TikTok, and those in the group who don’t use TikTok or don’t use it often were unaware of it. Yet, all in the group under the age of 30 immediately recognized the reference which had to be explained to the older of us gathered.
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There was a time in the past when most of us watched the same television shows and movies, read many of the same books, listened to the same radio stations and music, and generally consumed a far more limited selection of cultural sources. Nowadays that limited number of sources has exploded to such a large number that it’s impossible for anyone to keep up with it all.
Currently, there are an ever-increasing number of popular social media platforms along with smaller ones occupying their own chunk of the social media market.
Streaming services have splintered the series and movie watching viewership into steadily more compartmentalized silos of viewers who are familiar with content on the services they subscribe to and know little about offerings on other services.
There are more books, news sources, articles, music artists, and communication mechanisms than at any time in the past and they’re probably going to keep multiplying.
The list goes on of formerly smaller sets of cultural things we can reference that now span such large numbers that there’s no way the majority of the population can be aware of most of them.
Social media and hyperconnectivity have also splintered social groups into smaller components because we don’t even communicate with each other by all of the same means.
Cultural references are splintering quickly.
Even seemingly cohesive large groupings of people are being divided into smaller subsets of the whole that decreases the ability of the various members of the smaller groups to communicate with each other. As an older gay man, I remember a vast span of gay subculture that was easily recognized by the entirety of the larger gay community whole. Nowadays, not so much. I’m sure this applies to an endless list of other large groups experiencing such splintering.
Why is it important to acknowledge this? For me, it’s important because we use cultural references to communicate with each other all the time and the less someone understands those references the worse our communications. Rather than assume someone has been exposed to something, perhaps now we need to take extra care to more fully explain those references. Instead of “That ABC meme is so funny” perhaps “That ABC meme on Instagram poking fun at XYZ is so funny” is a better if imperfect approach.
I know, this is probably not likely to happen in most situations. Human nature wants shorthand. Groups of people who get each other’s cultural references are probably not going to expand upon them to better include the understanding of outsiders to that group. Still, I think it’s worth noting that if you use a cultural reference not likely to be understood by people with whom you are ostensibly attempting to communicate, a bit more explanation might be handy.
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