Parasocial monoculture

Why is it that the American kid I sat next to on the bus from Tekniska Museet keeps giggling about “6 7”, the same phrase a teacher friend of mine in Växjö has banned in his classroom? How come kids from across the world are members of this “6 7” club whose only purpose is the membership itself? What’s wrong with Ohio? Why is Jon Hamm so funny?

Your kid has a new imaginary friend, the algorithm

The specific memes here are probably already outdated, I’m very much not in the zeitgeist when it comes kids and scrolling anymore. But it’s not the specific memes that matters - it’s how culture has changed into something I want to call parasocial monoculture. While not linguistically correct, parasocial meaning ”[…] for a well-known or prominent figure”, I still think it’s a useful phrase. The prominent figure is not an entity per se, but the algorithm itself.

Of course, world-wide memes have always been a thing. When I was a young boy in Sweden we talked about Marilyn Manson’s rib, drew the super-S at school benches and knew how to catch MissingNo, but those things weren’t the culture itself, it was just tiny parts that lived alongside our local culture. Teachers didn’t have to keep updating lists of banned phrases to use in the classroom, unknowingly synced across the world.

So why is this? I think it’s kind of straightforward. Tech is extremely consolidated. There’s a few big apps available; Youtube, Instagram, TikTok. They of course have different algorithms, but they all share the same goal of maximizing profit. How do you maximize profit? You optimize for retention because eyeballs are money when you’re in the business of selling ads. This in turn incentives content creators to jump on trends because eyeballs are money when you’re in the business of creating content. And kids love repetition.

So what? Well, what does it mean when belonging is just recognizing the same empty things? If your friends already consume the content as you do, independently, what’s the purpose of interacting with each other? We’re all just… receiving. Together, but separately.