Choice and community

I’ve been listening to NPR a good bit of today. When they’re not doing pledge drives, they had a talk about radio. Someone observed that lack of choice fosters community. When everyone listened to the same radio station, everyone had that to talk about. This idea can be extrapolated outward to all kinds of levels. For example, when people married/y their high school sweethearts, they build their community from their community, with the sets of parents being friends and neighbors long before the kids united. A shared history glues people together.