Culture Goes À La Carte

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TGIF, Future Party. Remember when skinny jeans were non-negotiable, chokers were either velvet or plastic, and everyone owned a matte Kylie lip kit? When Instagram had a chronological feed and the Valencia filter, the dog face lived on Snapchat, things were “on fleek,” and BuzzFeed quizzes were shared without irony. ANTI was on repeat, we watched the same shows every week, caught UberPool across town, posed under neon script signs, and still said “But first, coffee.”

Ah, 2016. The last year it felt like we were all tuned to the same channel. We get into the decline of monoculture below.

For much of the last century, pop culture didn’t just entertain Americans — it helped keep us in sync.

A New Era: Movies, TV, and music once acted as cultural glue in a country defined by difference. With limited distribution, Americans consumed the same stories at the same time — shared reference points that cut across geography, class, and politics. Now, per The WSJ, that monoculture has splintered, replaced by personalized feeds, endless choice, and algorithms built for individuals — not crowds.

Behind The Split: The monoculture didn’t collapse overnight… technology just slowly pulled it apart.

The Upside: Creators no longer need permission to find an audience, and niche communities can finally rally around content made just for them. Entire industries now thrive on passionate fandoms that would’ve been economically impossible under the old model.

But something quieter faded in the process. Pop culture used to be an easy entry point for connection — a shared shorthand at work, at home, or with strangers. Now, even the biggest hits are splintered across platforms and timelines. Conversations that once started with reactions now stall at recommendations. We’re all watching something… just rarely together.

What’s Next: The American monoculture probably isn’t coming back, but the vacuum it leaves could get interesting. A new wave of formats, events, and platforms may emerge, accidentally pulling millions into the same collective feed at the same time — across the internet, TV, and movie theaters — even if they arrive for completely different reasons.

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OpenAI’s Sora app had one of the most talked-about launches in recent memory... and now it’s dealing with what comes next.

The Hype: According to TechCrunch, Sora’s early buzz translated into massive interest almost immediately. Its ability to generate high-quality video from text put it at the center of the AI conversation overnight. But rapid adoption has a catch: systems built for excitement aren’t always built for scale.

The Fallout: After liftoff, reality set in.

The Comedown: None of this signals failure — if anything, it’s a side effect  of success. Viral launches have a way of exposing bottlenecks that don’t appear in controlled rollouts. For OpenAI, the focus now is less about proving what Sora can do and more about making sure it runs smoothly at scale.

It’s a familiar phase in tech: the messy middle between a splashy debut and a stable product. Hype grabs attention. Infrastructure scrambles to catch up.

The Future: If OpenAI smooths performance and expands capacity, Sora’s early stumbles will read like footnotes. Expect the winners in this wave of AI to be defined less by what the tech can do, and more by how reliably it can do it for everyone, all at once.

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68.5% of you voted Apps on my phone in yesterday’s poll: How do you usually check the weather forecast?

“I like the Weather Underground app because I can focus on my immediate area. It’s good for running since I need to dress for where I am and where I’m going.”

“I’ve been checking dailydressme.com since high school to get a sense of the weather and how warmly to dress that day. It’s a godsend when packing for travel. I supplement it with more detailed info from AccuWeather on things like humidity or ‘feels like’ temperatures.”

“Multiple websites, including a statewide Mesonet to get an accurate reading of local current conditions, and most importantly, ‘just look outside.’ Sometimes even Android phone weather websites.”

“My quick go-to is Siri, but Siri doesn’t always pull accurate data. I also use local weather people, who are more accurate or at least get it in the ballpark.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

🎬 Darren Aronofsky’s AI studio, Primordial Soup, created an animated series revisiting 1776 using AI tools and SAG-AFTRA voice actors — now streaming on TIME’s YouTube channel.

🎞️ Before Sunrise, Clueless, and The Truman Show are among the 25 films newly added to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry.

📖 Ari Emanuel is dropping a “fiery” memoir this September, Roll the Calls, tracing his climb from the CAA mailroom to building Endeavor.

💸 Amazon, led by CEO Andy Jassy, is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI as the company seeks a $100 billion funding round.

🪙 Fidelity is launching an Ethereum-based stablecoin called the Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD), backed by cash and short-term Treasuries.

🗣️ Spotify is rolling out in-app group chats so listeners can talk while they share music.

💎 A$AP Rocky quietly debuted his new jewelry brand, PAVĒ NITEŌ, with skull-shaped rings at Chanel’s couture show.

💺 Southwest ditched open seating and now charges for seat selection as part of a plan to boost profits.

🧾 TurboTax opened a flagship SoHo store and partnered with Kody Phillips and Who Decides War on a fashion and entrepreneurship series.