Small and unimportant quibble. Pokemon Go, the phone game, was the availability cascade. Pokemon the franchise is supposedly the highest grossing media franchise of all time. Higher than Star Wars, Marvel, and even Mickey Mouse. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1257650/media-franchises-revenue/
I'm not sure the subculture thing is actually as relevant. For instance, can you imagine Black Lives Matter causing English soccer players to take a knee before the internet. Or more tellingly those murals of George Floyd in Kabul. I'm struck by the complete and total reach of elite culture.
Of course the greatest example is COVID, where everyone had a complete freak out at the same time. I'm thoroughly convinced a non-internet COVID would not have resulted in the freakout we got.
As to emphermalness I think it depends. Even if BLM is no longer popular, Biden is still writing equity into every government program. The email signatures of my colleagues still have pronouns in them, and I wouldn't be surprised if misgendering someone had HR implications. COVID is "over" but I'm still asked to wear a mask in medical settings and we are still dealing with the inflation caused by the lockdown spending.
Like a wave crashing on the shore that recedes, it leaves things behind.
Small and rather unimportant remark: Now I seem to understand why seemingly important phenomena like wokism do not really get my attention. It's the fracturing into subcultures. If a university goes woke & broke, there is an alternative, at least abroad.
I love the conclusion. Something will have to fill the void of values and purpose, whether it happens seamlessly or after a great societal collapse. But the current situation is socially unsustainable.
Small and unimportant quibble. Pokemon Go, the phone game, was the availability cascade. Pokemon the franchise is supposedly the highest grossing media franchise of all time. Higher than Star Wars, Marvel, and even Mickey Mouse. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1257650/media-franchises-revenue/
I'm not sure the subculture thing is actually as relevant. For instance, can you imagine Black Lives Matter causing English soccer players to take a knee before the internet. Or more tellingly those murals of George Floyd in Kabul. I'm struck by the complete and total reach of elite culture.
Of course the greatest example is COVID, where everyone had a complete freak out at the same time. I'm thoroughly convinced a non-internet COVID would not have resulted in the freakout we got.
As to emphermalness I think it depends. Even if BLM is no longer popular, Biden is still writing equity into every government program. The email signatures of my colleagues still have pronouns in them, and I wouldn't be surprised if misgendering someone had HR implications. COVID is "over" but I'm still asked to wear a mask in medical settings and we are still dealing with the inflation caused by the lockdown spending.
Like a wave crashing on the shore that recedes, it leaves things behind.
Re: "Ultimately, human society cannot live by availability cascades."
Correspondence of John Sinclair and Adam Smith, 1782:
Sinclair: “If we go on at this rate, the nation must be ruined. "
Smith's reply: “Be assured, my young friend, that there is a great deal of ruin in a nation”
Source:
http://adamsmithslostlegacy.blogspot.com/2009/11/adam-smith-on-ruin-of-nation.html
Small and rather unimportant remark: Now I seem to understand why seemingly important phenomena like wokism do not really get my attention. It's the fracturing into subcultures. If a university goes woke & broke, there is an alternative, at least abroad.
I love the conclusion. Something will have to fill the void of values and purpose, whether it happens seamlessly or after a great societal collapse. But the current situation is socially unsustainable.
More importantly, CW is right about Pokémon.