Thanksgiving Audiences

As I reflect on this past Thanksgiving season, I think about the audiences that I have encountered and been a part of. The first audience that I was a part of was at church where I attended mass and was part of the congregation listening to the homily. As part of the Catholic community, parishioners came together with their families especially at this time to be thankful and to wish one another a Happy Thanksgiving. From being a consistent church goer, I have noticed that when it comes to significant holidays throughout the year, that is when the most amount of people come to church, maybe because they find that time of year to be more important than others, who knows. The audience at church can be compared to that of sports audiences when it comes to playoff games because more people want to show up to those games and show their support while being a part of something bigger than themselves.

On the day my family celebrates Thanksgiving, we host many of our family members for dinner and we also use this time to catch up with one another. That day I noticed many different audiences around my house; the young adults were listening to their older relatives tell stories about when they were children themselves, there were family members playing with the little children in the family room while also making sure they didn't get into trouble, and there were teenagers playing a board game and some of the older relatives watched them in confusion. Thus, some of the audiences were engaged with those they were watching, while others were able to reflect on the similarities and differences between them and their elders. This reminds of early examples where there were older people gathered around a fire telling stories to the young ones and teaching them life lessons. Hence, in my opinion, not much has changed as far as the idea of sharing experiences between the young and the old audiences, but rather the platforms we use to communicate have evolved and that may be why some people in the older generations find it difficult to use newer technology and communicate with the younger generations.