Yeah. The xkcd is right.

But it was less stressful at the same time. The shared reality was the 6 pm news. No endless conspiracy theories.

A friend is listening to every recording of Coast to Coast AM, which began in 1988. He notes that it was a remarkably interactive format; people would call in and try to trick Art Bell with preposterous conspiracy theories; Art Bell would play along, because it was fun (and it was his job).[0] The 6pm news was never interactive; what they talked about was never fun; it was and still is an endless stream of terror.

[0] I'm not defending Coast to Coast AM; I'm noting it's interactive format.

For a brief but refreshing period in 2004-05, I was completely without a computer or Internet connection at home. When I moved that year, I also ditched my T.V. for a very zen experience.

It was a dank and dreary little studio apartment and my only companionship was an AM/FM radio. In an interesting turn of events, I experienced Hurricane Katrina solely through audio news reports. I suffered vicariously with the victims and sang along to Aaron Neville's "Louisiana 1929".

Besides a lot of NPR, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Wait Wait -- Don't Tell Me, and Lake Wobegon, I also listened to Art Bell's show; George Noory was often substituting at that point. It was really entertaining. In fact I used to be enthralled with the supernatural stuff when I was a really little kid picking up books at swap meets. I loved UFOs and OBEs and NDEs and SHCs. The Coast to Coast sessions brought back fond memories of those carefree days.

"Shared reality" - lovely phrase! That's the thing that's missing for most people. In the office everyone is watching different tv shows, movies, listening to different music etc. There isn't much shared reality, at least in the way I remember as a child. Even my own kid has a show she's found on Netflix that she enjoys but none of her peers knows about, or cares to know about.