> Where free time is not used for research — for developing questions, and investigating the answers with an explorer’s spirit — cultural coherence crumbles.
Perhaps, but the reality for a great many is that "free time" is occupied by survival anxiety, whether because that time is spent in additional paid work, care of loved ones, or attempting to get a leg up or to jump on a non-sinking life raft.
While technology-enabled cultural fragmentation is undoubtedly a strong influence in this, the long term affordability inversion that has occurred between consumables (food, clothes, electronics, etc) and assets (housing, education, security) has exacerbated the aforementioned anxieties and therefore makes people vulnerable to the charms of the escapism that new types of quick-hit media provide, from cable-news through to social media.
Perhaps, but the reality for a great many is that "free time" is occupied by survival anxiety, whether because that time is spent in additional paid work, care of loved ones, or attempting to get a leg up or to jump on a non-sinking life raft.
While technology-enabled cultural fragmentation is undoubtedly a strong influence in this, the long term affordability inversion that has occurred between consumables (food, clothes, electronics, etc) and assets (housing, education, security) has exacerbated the aforementioned anxieties and therefore makes people vulnerable to the charms of the escapism that new types of quick-hit media provide, from cable-news through to social media.