Two years ago, I was sick of having such easy access to music, losing time to personalized algorithms, and carrying a device that demanded my attention at all times. So I turned in my iPhone and got a $25 flip phone with the commitment of keeping it for an entire month. With T9 texting and access to the radio, I was living a simple life, and it felt like bliss. And yet, three weeks in, I felt bored and left out. I was unable to relate to the online references my friends knew so well. With restricted communication, I was oblivious to many social gatherings and invited to fewer things.
A world without modern technology has held a nostalgia and yearning in my heart for as long as I can remember. I had always wished I was born in the 80s and I could experience my younger years without screens. However, bringing old technology into the modern world will never be the same. Today, having modern technology to access media is mandatory. Participate, or the world leaves you behind.
While this idea of relatable media isn't new, it's drastically changed. The social canon is the collection of media so well known and accepted that everyone should be able to reference it. Historically, in Western media, these have been “the classics”: Star Wars, Romeo and Juliet, and Michael Jackson. However, as we spend more and more time watching vertical short-form media, in turn leaving theaters and libraries emptier than ever, I'd argue this has shifted the definition of the word. TikTok trends lasting a couple of weeks and online inside jokes are arguably just as important to understand in order to fit in socially as “the classics.”
With increased access to media and exponentially more creators of entertainment, we’ve created division. There's no television weekly release that spans generations and freezes the world like that was 20 years ago. Gluing just about anyone to a packed couch for one hour a week and creating the relevant conversation until the next Tuesday. However, the extinction of the monoculture created subcultures where, for the first time, everything is popular. No longer does one fashion style, music taste, or lifestyle dominate the country. Instead, the amount of extra denim on your jeans or lack thereof fits with a group of people who choose it as a part of their identity. And your favorite music, from corporate pop to heavy metal, resonates with a specific group more than ever. If you can’t find that community in your town or city, there's a sector of the internet that represents you. With an emphasis on striving to be different, we accidentally fragmented the culture, creating an environment where everyone has a place.
In the modern world, caring about media shapes our individual characters more than ever. Your opinions of music, the creators on your algorithm, and the types of entertainment you seek out shape how you see the world. Consuming both what's most popular and what's virtually unacknowledged creates the individualized human experience. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary (N.D) defines “Self” as “an individual's unique character, consciousness of identity, and the inner union of thoughts, body, and emotions that separate one person from everyone else”. So if I'm going to leave you with one thing, I want it to be to watch movies, new and old, really care about food and risk bad meals, take a chance on a new music type, and spend intentional time on your phone. The single most interesting thing you can do as a human is care about media and culture.
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Self. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self
About the Author:
Miles Wood is a fourth-year advertising student at the University of Oregon. He enjoys irresponsible purchases on Facebook Marketplace, a really crisp, chilled Asian pear, and incredibly niche Halloween costumes. He's a writer, stuntman, bowler, and creative.