Join the Conversation

“Join the conversation”: a byline on almost every news channel these days. Don’t just be a viewer, come be a viewer-commentator. Of course, this tendency extends beyond news channels and extends to almost all events today.

Not everyone is a fan though. Some would like to have “Quiet Enjoyment”. Brent Cox describes this Shushers v/s Anti-Shushers debate as:

“a chair fight masquerading as a robust conversation”

As might be expected, the debate has a generational slant:

“the Millennial-ish Anti-Shushers vs. the geezer Luddites”.

But isn’t this desire to have a conversation about something you liked/ watched/ experienced deep rooted?

“A characteristic of the way that we apparently always wanted to consume entertainment, however we arrived at it, involves the need to converse, the need to share, the need for at least the illusion of being heard.”

The smartphone made it possible to do that regardless of whether you are at a stadium, a concert or in front of the idiot box. It also made it possible to be

alone together:

“We want to watch together. In our own homes, in front of our own multiple screens.”

Of course, sometimes the need to share becomes an addiction:

“It’s about fellowship, of varying degrees, which is to say that it’s about loneliness. A really scary loneliness. Not like: will you die alone and unloved? More like: will your existence go unvalidated in the 42 minutes of entertainment you’re about to consume?”

And while Cox would ideally like both the Anti-Shushers and Shushers to co-exist, he is very much alive to the fact that:

“Only one of these camps, however, has the muscle of commerce behind it.”

Maybe we should embrace the change and swing with the tide…