First, I think Chuck Klosterman is a brilliant pop culture writer.
Second, given society's tendency to soak up media information at an outstanding rate, I dare say it is impossible for whatever is pop culture at the time to not affect our lives. For example, I have never seen Paris Hilton's sex tape nor do I really want to but I know it exists and for a time was big "news"(using that word in the most generous sense).
The other day, I was actually thinking about how shows like Grey's Anatomy, Friends, etc have caused the concept of dating in older singles to take on a high schoolesque style. In other words, today's working singles try to put "drama" in their relationships because they think this is normal. But it has always been this way. When James Dean wore a white T shirt with jeans, guys started whereing white tees and jeans.
Now, I would like to think that most people the effect is only minimal. But for some reason, there are large groups of people who have to follow and emulate every trend on TV, radio, movies, etc. just to define themselves as the most up to date person.