Homogenisation
“The age of Average”
Alex Murrell writes about what he calles the “age of average”: The age of average — Alex Murrell.
The tendencay for a lot of the stuff we surround ourselves with and produce to seem the same these days. I would like to add some cultural caveats to that statement as I am sure you could find something different if you wished; it is out there. But it is getting increasingly hard to find it.
The perspective also reminds me of the thing Bee Wilson mentions in her book about how food globally has gotten less and more varied at the same time. Seeming to be a paradox that is easily resolved by looking at the definitions and scale however:
The typical culinary vocabulary of people has increased in diversity and variation: locally each and every one of us know more different food now than we did before.
Globally however the diversity of all available food has become less as a “standard culinary vocabulary” has surplaced a lot of the local cuisine that people knew of before and that distinguished itself more from other places’ cuisines.
As an example “everybody” knows what Pasta Carbonara is, it’s ubiquitous.
Murell similarily points to areas of our lives where things have gotten increasingly similar over time:
- preferences for art
- preferences for interior design
- coffee shops
- cities and architecture
and more…