Chapter 4: Social Glue and America
Sunstein explains how shared events have a tendency to bring people together. On a national level, Holidays are one way to create a shared experience, and add to pride amongst citizens in the U.S. and helps to add a sense of unity and shared social identity. Unfortunately many holidays in the U.S. have become mere excuses to take a day off of work, and are not even celebrated.
Thanks to the Internet, it has become much easier for all of the people in the world to have a shared experience, helping all of the citizens of the world to feel the bond of being related to all human kind in some way. When a massive 7.0 earthquake shook and crumbled the very foundations of an already impoverished Haiti, the Internet was in part responsible from the overwhelming support for the Haitian people. Many people, including myself, learned first about the earthquake damage from Internet sources such as news sites or information spreading through facebook. Thanks in part to Internet sales of music, millions of dollars were raised and awareness of this tragedy was spread all around the world and quickly. This event brought together an enormous amount of Americans, all with a shared goal of helping Haiti. And on a larger scale, this joint relief effort served to bring together several nations and arguably the entire world. This event most certainly served as social glue.
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