Random Thoughts on the nature of Media and the effect it has on culture

So as I scrolled down my face book page today there was a posting by NPR that mentioned that When the Cosby show was in it's hay day it had a viewing audience of 25 million and that Currently American Idol only has 15 million. This got me to thinking. Does the proliferation of media content and the ways to access it diminish the experience homogeneity of the American popular culture experience, effectively segregating the country.

For example: When TV was first Broadcast there were three channels now there are hundreds. When there was only three the American population only had three choices, therefor if you were watching TV (Which as we Know not everyone was ) you were exposed to one of three experiences. Now you don't even have to watch "regular" TV at all or even cable, there is net flicks, Hulu, DVR's, and many, many other ways to choose what media watch. In a short space of years we have gone from Saturday morning Cartoons to multiple cartoon Channels. My question is 'Is this diversification and personalization of media contributing to the divided atmosphere of the country?'

My hypothesis is that as we are more able to personalize the type of media we ingest we loose a common cultural base, thus further separating the American public. It makes it harder to say to a neighbor 'Did you see (Insert show here) last night?' and thus decreasing common experiences. Then as you take that on a National Scale no wonder are country is becoming more and more polarized. We can't find common ground because we don't have a common basis for reference making it harder and harder to relate to each other. We don't have to listen to the 'other guys' opinion we can search out media that only backs up our own opinion.

Don't get me wrong I love all the variety and the options and I think that there is so much good that comes out of people being able to express there opinions through social media (otherwise I wouldn't have this blog). It make me question though if there should be some type of common cultural basis for our country that gives us a place to start from. I love the diversity of our country and I would hate to lose that, but I would really like to see us pull together and function as a whole as opposed to two sides of a coin.

I know there are many other ideas and variables that contribuate to this division. I don't have the answer I am much better at coming up with the question :) Tell me what you think.

All my love..... Jennette