The other day a few of us went for a hike in the San Gabriel Mountains. Hiking anywhere close to LA is not as solitary of an activity as it might be elsewhere, and this trail certainly was not empty. The hike led to a beautiful waterfall which had a bit more water than usual, presumably due to recent rain, and a moment or two after reaching it we found some unclaimed rocks and sat down.
We had been sitting there for a moment or two resting and taking in the beauty when we looked at each other because we had realized at the same moment that the folks next to us were having roughly the same conversation we had had a few days back. This was a remarkably normal event, and we almost didn't say anything about it.
"Weren't we just...?"
"Yeah."
Whereas a few years ago I might have broken into the strangers conversation and mentioned the funny the coincidence, this time I didn't bother. It felt a little strange to be reminded that we had so much in common with the nameless millions surrounding us in LA, and probably across the US.
How many of us read the same headlines, see the same advertisements, watch the same shows, listen to the same music, use the same apps? How does this affect us as a society?
I'm sure there is quite a lot of variation across and within demographics, but the menu of choices in front of us might not be as extensive as we'd like to believe.
We might actually be better off in this regard than we were a decade or two ago, with more YouTube and less PBS, more podcasts and less public radio.
But I wonder if we aren't all just making the same fairly predictable choices?