Back in high school we all learned about the Big Bang Theory. It went like this: All of the matter in the Universe was tightly packed together and then it burst apart. To this day the Universe is still expanding and all of that matter and energy has morphed into distinct entities – solar systems, galaxies, quasars, stars. It’s mind bending to consider and most of us go about our lives with little thought as to what else might be ‘out there’.

Maybe in some ways the mediaverse we all live in today is doing something similar.

Around the time of World War II our collective awareness was tightly packed together. We had a few radio stations, even fewer television channels and a number of newspapers and magazines to choose from. While each of these might have expressed different political leanings or perspectives on the same idea, the near proximity of one person’s media experience to another’s kept us all relatively close. We may not have agreed 100%, but we were all unified to some degree by commonly experiences expressions of world events.

Then, like the big bang, the ‘matter’ of the mediaverse burst. We all know this story: The number of media options began to grow cumulatively. Where once we had three or four networks, suddenly we had a couple hundred cable channels. Advances in publishing allowed for more magazines and newspapers. Niche interests could be attended to with dedicated programming. Instead of the Nightly News we could now tune into Fox on the right or MSNBC on the left. We had the freedom of choice and we’ve been exercising that freedom ever since.

Growing Distance

An outcome of making this choice is that we’ve created some distance between ourselves and people with differing opinions. Early on in the expansion of the mediaverse we still had some common media experiences, but we also were offered an opportunity to fill an increasingly larger portion of our media consumption time with information that was specific to our interests and existing opinions.

Of course this big bang expansion of media continues today. The rise of the commercial Web has given us infinitely more choices. Now if we want we can fill all of our time with niche programming about very specific topics. The mass experiences that brought us all together – those archetypical 1940′s moments where every family in the United States sat and listened to the President discuss the war – have become fewer and further between. When they do happen, even institutions like the Superbowl have begun to draw smaller audiences. Today we still have occasional watercooler sitcoms and concerts with truly mass reach, but they are far more rare.

The mediaverse used to give birth to international stars like U2 and Bruce Springsteen. These were bands everyone knew because we all heard the same singles on the radio and watched the same videos on MTV. Today’s rising stars play to smaller galaxies. There’s still stadium rock, but not as much of it. The music industry doesn’t make many of those broad-appeal, everyone-knows-his-music, Bruce Spirngsteen-sized stars anymore.

Social Media Create Connections & Echo Chambers

With the mediaverse expansion – particularly as exacerbated by Social Media – has come further isolation for each of us. Yes, we’ve got our legion of Facebook friends and Twitter following and in that sense, we’re highly connected. But given the freedom to choose any connection or program in the vast media verse, most of us are are now creating our own Perceptual Galaxies.

These are discreet systems filled with a very focused, hand-selected groups of people, media and ideas. This is playing out particularly clearly in politics and the recent healthcare debates.

On the (more extreme) right Republicans paint their picture of the world…

On the (more extreme) left Democrats paint their picture of the world…

Of course Obama is no more a Nazi than all Republicans are illiterate rednecks… but if you want to believe either side’s story, you can surround yourself with ‘proof’ very easily.

Today, the same pieces of information can be spun to orbit two different galaxies in two very different directions. In this way the unsettling partisan polarity we’re struggling with in government is exacerbated by all of our media choices. Each ‘side’ has its own facts, it’s own spin and it’s own spokespeople. With little effort we can choose our own galaxy and live their quite comfortably… most of the time.

When Perceptual Galaxies Collide
The outcome of building perceptual galaxies is not unlike the plot of some 1950′s sci-fi movie. Are we alone in the Universe? Is there intelligent life beyond our own galaxy? When an alien species enters our galaxy are they greeted as friends or as hostile invaders undermining our values and bent on our destruction?

Read the headlines today and our kneejerk reaction becomes apparent – we’re xenophobic and increasingly hostile about it. I attribute this directly to the insular perceptual galaxies that are created, almost through an inertia-like force, when we choose our media consumption and connections.

For all the togetherness we hear about in our highly interconnected age of cell phones and texting and social networking, there’s a lot of tension out there stemming from our differences. As we all spin off into our individually-created galaxies of media and connections are we losing sight of the other worlds of opinion and perspective?

Historically, in human relationships, distance creates problems. From the stereotypically doomed “long-distance love affair” to the villifying of foreign cultures or other races, when we allow enough distance to come between what we think is true and other ideas, it usually leads to dark places.

So is the solution less choice? Should we try to backtrack to collective media? Even if we could, it’s not a good idea. The old saying, “The best defense against free speech is free speech” holds true in media too. More exposure to more ideas is a productive approach to spanning some of the perceptual ravines we’re creating. But we have to fight the easy inertia of choosing only media and connections that confirm what we already believe. We have to choose to seek out difference.

I believe, but can’t confirm, that we’re not alone in the universe. We may be too distant from other stellar galaxies to ever know for sure but statistically I can’t believe Earth is the only planet capable of sustaining life.

However, I do know and can confirm that I’m not alone in the mediaverse. I know there are many ideas and perceptions and people in the world. I believe I will be the wiser for getting to know them. But to do so, I will have to make a conscious effort to climb into an intellectual rocketship and be willing to jump to hyperspace through hyperlinks. Our technology makes this kind of warp drive experience possible if we choose to use it that way.

And yes, some of the perceptual galaxies I explore may have environments I won’t like. They may be hostile or I may judge them ignorant, uninformed, or just plain wrong. But at least I will have taken a look around. At least I will have explored. Along the way, I’m sure I will find some ideas that will inform my own moving forward.

I believe that by visiting other perceptual galaxies we prepare for the day when two galaxies bump into each other. For as much distance as we have in the mediaverse, we’re still all on the same planet in our solar system. Our perceptual galaxies can’t help but collide. How we respond will have everything to do with how much distance we allow to come between us ideologically.

That is a choice you and I have to make with our computer mouse, cell phone, television, radio dial, and subscriptions.

Houston, are you standing by?