Pop culture as a form of Communication

I was going through David Malan’s wonderful course, CS50, and it was interesting to see how he made the course so much more interesting by using pop culture references. Harry Potter references as string variables, asking people’s favorite show and using that to teach SQL.

These might be minor points in the manner of teaching but make a lot of difference to how the class & the Prof is perceived. I myself got more interested in the lecture through such pop culture references. It is interesting to note what makes pop culture references so compelling

Pop culture, as the name suggests, is a form of artistic media which has gained a huge following and thus resonates amongst many. Its greatest strength lies in being a common language for people to connect with each other.

We have often seen that people bond better over their favorite movies, shows etc. That in a way, explains the meme culture and the sudden rise of memes as a form of communication. I can convey a lot more with my favorite movie dialogues, snippets than I can do with words.

And that too in a way that transcends language. Basically, a movie or a book ends up building a language in itself. Memes driven from pop culture brings a way of connecting people over a common theme.

I have also seen people use ‘memes’ as a method to gauge partner compatibility. Given this , wouldnt it be interesting to have a social media platform which would allow you to bond and connect with others only on the basis of your interests in movies, books, art etc.

We have Goodreads (for books), Letterboxd (for movies) etc. but not one platform for this… or am I missing something ?