Unlike millions of people, I don’t care about the Super Bowl, the American football championship, which starts a few minutes after this will be posted.

I don’t follow the league. I don’t care who is playing the half-time show. The ads, which are so hyped, are now all available online – there is no need to watch the game to see them. I don’t care that Taylor Swift has flown in from Japan to watch her boyfriend play in the big game.

But I will be watching.

When I was young there were a lot of shared cultural experiences. Television shows, sporting events, news events would all draw huge television ratings.

In today’s fractured media universe that has vanished. We don’t listen to the same music, watch the same movies and television shows, follow the same sports teams or get our news from the same sources.

There just aren’t the things that bind us together as a society that there used to be. Except for the Super Bowl. So I’m going to watch. And cheer, though I don’t know who for.

After all, the defending champions are back in the game – and are considered the underdog. That seems a little strange to me.

You would think the team that has shown it can win the big games should be favored. But maybe it has something to do with betting patterns.

Every sporting event I have watched on television the last few years has seemed to be more about gambling than an athletic contest. I actually don’t care who gets the first point, who completes the first pass or who wins the coin toss.

But millions of people, spurred on by advertising, will be betting on those or other things. I’m sure you can place a bet on how long before the cameras show Taylor Swift sitting in the stands, or if she will be shown for more than the average 24 seconds the camera has cut to her in the games she has attended this season.

I saw a mention this week that Taylor Swift’s romance with a player on the championship team has been a $331 million economic benefit for the NFL. She’s a shrewd marketer – she should demand a cut.

From what I have read the two teams are evenly matched and predictions are it will be a good football game. I hope so – the Super Bowls I have watched in the past have usually been pretty boring.

So I’ll be parked in front of the television this evening, snacks in hand, taking part in what may be the last shared cultural experience in North America. The Super Bowl has grown bigger over the years as so many other activities we used to share have become irrelevant.

I think that is why I will watch. We all have an innate desire to belong to something bigger than ourselves. With the decline in religious belief, with the loss of so many of our heroes, this may be the last of the universal religious festivals.

Maybe I feel I should take part, before society fractures even further. How about you?