The Extinction of Mass Culture

This is a very good Fortune Magazine piece about "The End of the Watercooler Era." With so many choices out there there, everyone scurries to their niche and misses out on what would have been common experiences. Like me-- I've never seen "American Idol" or "24" or "Lost" or "Survivor." I used to think it was just because I was getting old, but that's only part of the story-- the bigger story is that young and old alike are splintering their attention, whether it is on cable channels or the net or home video. The "monoculture" of the network television era is over. Not that this is a bad thing....