There have been moments in our history when technology appeared to bring us together to share an experience. On February 9, 1964, for example, 73 million Americans gathered around their television sets to watch the Beatles perform live on The Ed Sullivan Show. This event, known in music circles as the beginning of the “British Invasion,” was seen by a record television audience at the time — and had a profound effect on American culture.

            On February 28, 1983, it again seemed as if the whole country was watching as a helicopter ascended to reveal the word “Goodbye” in stone on the grounds of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the final scene of the television series M*A*S*H. That single episode had an estimated 125 million viewers and broke the record for the highest percentage of homes with televisions tuned in to the same program.

            In contrast, on September 29, 2013, the final episode of Breaking Bad, one of the most anticipated television series finales in recent years, had only some 10 million Americans tuned in to see what would happen to Walter White in the end. The finale of How I Met Your Mother was also highly anticipated. But when it aired on March 31, 2014, only 12.9 million Americans tuned in. Certainly those were large audiences, but their ratings pale in comparison to those received by the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, or the final episode of M*A*S*H.

            Because we have so many more channel choices today, shared cultural events such as that final episode of M*A*S*H don’t happen as easily now. Thus, when we converse around the proverbial water cooler today, we cannot assume mo

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