By Kyle Moser
If you know me, I’ve probably loaded you with endless film, tv, and book recommendations.
I believe that it is accurate to assert that stories are the chief agent bonding all relationships together. Those stories are lived experiences that we share with, or hear from, others as well as films, shows, and books. I believe that stories which are packaged for sharing are more comprehensive and efficient means of establishing and maintaining commonality in relationships.
Legend
People recommend stories to those they care about for a variety of reasons. Regardless of the surface reason - to seem cool or in the know, to illustrate personality by establishing thematic or aesthetic associations - the underlying reason is almost always a means of connecting.
We share stories to connect with people more easily. We share awareness of stories to signal a path to connection. Networks of stories form our mythologies and reflect our culture.
When someone wants to know another better they’ll often take up story recommendations and share in the mythologies they have expressed appreciation for. In doing so, we establish a foundation for constructive relationships through which we work together, build incredible structures, and accomplish feats which cannot be done alone - like landing mankind on Mars or securing peace, prosperity, and sustainability on Earth. On the surface we have something to talk about, but more profoundly we share an understanding from which we can build and grow beautiful endeavors.
Every time we share a story with others we strengthen bonds, crystalize memories, and contribute toward a history. When we consume, or live, stories as a community they are our cultural software updates that help us network faster toward bigger and more complex goals (Types of Stories). This is the societal role religions and myths have filled for eons from the times of ziggurats and pyramids to The Pantheon to the Hagia Sophia. Stories are, always have been, always will be, a major aspect of our social connective tissue and they are a representation of, and distribution mechanism for, our collective processing. As dreams are to the individual, stories of whatever form are to the community that consumes them.
The more comprehensive and resonant the story, the more bonds can be built from it. The more specific or niche the story, the more empathy can be generated from it. When shared stories achieve their goal of building cultural foundation the collective thrives. Our companies act based on shared values, our governments and communities waste less by building upon the achievements of the past rather than canceling it, and harmony spreads.
The first technology of storytelling, and communication generally, was language itself. Language enables complex coordination and sharing arrangements. We use language to manipulate ideas and achieve goals. The evolution of language however, wouldn't have been possible without a community history drawing multiple parties together. In fact, language and story have a mutualistic relationship. You can't have either without the other.
The inception of language represents the inception of coordination, innovation, and shared story. Initially language was as fluid as bird song (Source). There was no standardization. Every word was a sound evolving live, like a game of telephone. The accumulation of vocabulary in a community mirrors innovation and the likelihood of written language. The more advanced a civilization becomes, the less violence, the more harmony and construction, and the more history is both generated and recoverable through language and artifacts.
When made distributable with the advent of writing, stories began to convey accurately through time, via stone and cuneiform, and eventually through space via paper, press, and other modern communication tools. The type and degree of effect stories have also changed with new transmission technologies. The telegraph and telephone brought immediacy and range to direct p2p communication, while Radio broadcasts have inspired us to war and peace with regional distribution. “Until the 20th century, many people around the world lived in what can be referred to as a mostly closed social system...For the first time, people experienced the music and culture of people unlike them, heard new stories and radio dramas, and bonded with their nation over news reports during times of war. In the broadest sense, radio tore down the barriers and opened up vast new worlds that challenged and educated.” Next, film and TV arrived with the crucial visual component. “Now, viewers didn't just get descriptions of things, they got to see first-hand performances of dance, drama, and comedy. Moreover, television provided visual tours of other countries” and cultures. (Study.com)
Now, the internet. Online, the conventional constraints of space and time disappear. The internet enhanced collaboration, and enabled pay off of infinite curiosity by putting everything on demand. However, it has also fractured collective truth, and enabled mass social disruption via infinite distraction. We are constantly imbued with the paradox of choice.
Decentralized and on-demand streaming platforms have splintered traditional distribution networks. This splintering coincides with similar trends in personal communication platforms, religion, and political consensus, causing a painful rift in our cultural foundations resulting in a self-fueling mindshare consuming cycle. The personal impact is diminished connection even with close friends over movies or shows we’ve watched. Without these shared stories serving as a connection more pressure falls on core tenets which are challenging to convey in even the most conducive environment. The deviations we have and will always have regarding the ways in which we conceptualize and communicate our core tenets surface and fester. All these elements compound in a manner detrimental to the likelihood of shared in-person experiences.
We are so out of sync. We will remain out of sync until a leader truly gifted in focusing the narrative reemerges.
As our personal online story sharing platforms (social networks) have evolved, they’ve all gone from daily updates, public journal entries, blogs, or images in the present, to becoming ideological battlefields and news/link feeds. Online social networks have become the fiery crucible in which the future of our societies modus operandi will be forged - either the graveyard or the final proving ground of the promise of democratic republican government.