- [[pop monoculture refers to facets of popular culture experienced by a huge amount of people at one time]] - when describing the way shared cultural experiences have shifted post-social media, -streaming, and -recommendation systems, “monoculture” has been used to describe two opposing problems: 1. **hyper-fragmentation** → we don’t “tune in” together anymore. we have separated “walled gardens” of streaming content that we can watch when and wherever we choose. 2. **homogenization** → [[{3.1} the algorithm is a giant system|recommendation systems]] reward what they already know people like, and so hyper-optimization for “the algorithm” (or attention) leads to cultural artifacts becoming increasingly similar. - requires that media has *universal reference points* that can be meme-ified for virality. - reminds me vaguely of [[human centipede epistemology]]. - [[Chayka, Kyle - 2019 - Can Monoculture Survive the Algorithm|kyle chayka writes]] that optimizing for virality is moving us toward both a “monotonous” and “monolithic” culture. >[!note]- major overhaul [[2026-08-03]] >consolidated / archived several atomic notes.