Loss of shared experience

Growing up I remember a time when I could call my friends and talk to them about the TV program they were watching. It was obviously the same one as I was watching as there were only two channels, so I could even time it for the commercial break. The same thing happened in earlier times with the radio. This situation has obviously changed...I don't even watch TV anymore.

At work some people have an expectation that I've read the news in the newspaper and talk to me about news that was adjacent to the story we are discussing. It is quite jarring to the conversation when I admit to knowing nothing about what they're talking about. I hardly ever buy a 'paper, everytime they give it to us for free I realise that the joy of the accidental discoveries (advertisements, odd news, etc) does not outweigh the wads of paper I end up having to get rid of.

Pondering these two things I wonder if we are experiencing the loss of the shared experience; the iPod generation get to listen to (and now see whatever they want, whenever they want. The opportunity for serendipitous discoveries is lost; we listen to what we have selected and unless we choose to there is no chance of accidentally discovering something new. There is no "I listen to the radio station which I like ~60% of the time and discover a new song/group".

On-demand hosted video (YouTube) goes some way to reverse this trend, but the shared experience is only amongst your peer group; MySpace et al makes this easier but again only within the defined peer group. I am beginning to attribute the popularity of social networking to the ability to perform this sharing; to bridge the islands that we've placed ourselves in and regain the ability to talk about shared experiences even if we didn't share them at the same time or place.

Where will we go from here? Will the gaps between peer groups (grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren) grow greater? Will we find a different way to slice social networks so that you don't shock your parents with your latest drinking antics, but you do share the appropriate things with those groups? How will this happen over timelines to control a situation where grandchildren 20 years hence can join a group and see granddad vomiting on the pavement? As a video?

I can see a time when your social network profile is updated in real-time with your physical location and any and all of the things you are watching, listening to, or generally experiencing. twitter is only the beginning of this. Controlling the release (and archiving) of this information has got to be an eventual concern as it matures.

Food for thought. Sorry if you expected a conclusion.