Walang basagan ng trip: our ‘create your own reality’ culture

Correct me if I’m wrong but the sequencing was this: Monday Mekanda, Tuesday Daimos, Wednesday Mazinger Z, Thursday Grendizer, and Friday was — of course — Voltes V.

To stretch it further: Monday was Teddy Benigno, Tuesday Julie Yap Daza, Wednesday Dong Puno, Thursday Louie Beltran.

Wednesday was also Miami Vice, while Thursday was The Equalizer. That was the ’80s. We watched MTV; listened to 88.3 (if you’re into jazz), 89.9 (what was then “mainstream”), 93.9 (for music mixed with jokes), and 107 (for a bit of edginess).

The point of that rather pedestrian walk down memory lane was that practically everyone did the same things. And usually did those things physically together.

We knew the same music, movies, fashion. The jokes were the same. You can bet that what was on television last night will be the conversation’s topic come recess the next day.

It was almost ritualistic. Which is the other point.

Because one had to wait for a specific time weekly to watch any of those shows, lasting mostly 30 minutes each, hourly for primetime shows (actually 45, commercials taking the rest of the hour; and yes, everyone then knew the commercials’ jingles).

Not every food was available on demand. Crispy pata, pizza? That’s for special occasions. KFC? You had to drive to Cubao to get it.

We knew it was Christmas because in December ( yes, December, not September), CDO would come out with their outdoor display.

You vacationed in Hong Kong? What are you, some sosyal millionaire?

In short, reality was mostly shared and reality was acknowledged as one. And people waited for and endured those realities.

Life was based on a fixed rhythm beyond one’s manipulation: on this day this will happen, on this evening the family eats this food and does that activity together.

One conforms to the rhythm: miss an episode or a song, very likely because of school or social commitments, there’d be no repeats, that’s that, so just suck it up, and patiently wait again.

Sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton examined teenagers in 2005 and found a propensity to create their own reality, so much so that they’ve actually created their own belief system ( which the researchers labeled as the): Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

Those adhering to MTD believe that God accepts whoever they are and whatever they do, that right and wrong is essentially equivalent to what makes them feel good about themselves, and