Are You Out of Touch With Popular Culture?

[JohnnyDelRay]

Is it even possible to be "in-touch" with everything, unless you spend all your time watching every damn show, scouring for every new upcoming music artist, and playing every new game that comes out?

I think I'm pretty much where I want to be with the TV shows, picking only a couple of the last few years: Breaking Bad, GoT, Walking Dead, currently enjoying Boardwalk Empire. Movie backlog is getting a bit long but nothing too annoying.

Where I get annoyed that I've fallen behind is mostly music and games, partly due to the fact that I usually put effort in to be ahead of the curve and always having lots of new/interesting stuff to listen to and finishing games at a steady rate. I don't mean the mainstream games like the CoD's and Destiny's either. Now with work and later-life responsibilities, it's getting freaking hard to stay on top of it all.

captcha: outlook good (Did I even ASK for your opinion, magical 8-ball?!?)

 

[Javetts Eall Raksha]

i feel myself falling behind what is popular. especially in video games. after the SMT x fire emblem trailer i saw only 20 or so people who didn't like it. thousands of people loved that it was complete absent of the feel of either game. Final Fantasy is now consistently disappointing instead of consistently great, there is maybe one good RPG a year if we're lucky. i haven't bought a non handheld non retro PC game in like a year. i feel that maybe there aren't going to be too many more games being made that i enjoy. that maybe the industry will just forget about the type of games i like and move on. i don't even know how i'll feel.

 

[Fox12]

I have pretty weird taste, and I don't really keep up with most pop culture. I don't watch any t.v. for instance, so I know nothing about your walking deads and agent shields. I did see breaking bad, and it was okay, I guess. I know nothing about modern music whatsoever. Also, I'm out of touch with the lingo. Apparently Hella is a thing the kiddo's say theses days.

I keep up with games pretty good, and I generally know whatS up in the anime world. I mean, I have no desire to watch Kill la Kill or Sword Art, but I know what they are, and I know they're the worst/best thing ever.

So, all in all, I'm pretty out of touch, but I'm not a total hermit. My friends are always surprised how out of touch I am : P

 

[L. Declis]

I can't. I'm too busy and thanks to the internet, there is more "popular culture than ever". So I've never seen a PewDiPie video before, and I likely never will.

I have also completely given up on music. I used to try and expand it, but frankly, it's not worth the effort and pay off in my mind for newer or older stuff and I'm quite happy to admit I know fuck all of music and just enjoy Aerosmith and Fallout Boy for the hundredth time.

When it comes to video games, there are almost certainly comeplete areas of gaming I don't bother with. I have only played one MMO (Guild Wars, because it was subscription free), I have played 4 games of LoL or any MOBA in my life (in Chinese, where I was yelled at in Chinese by my friends who don't speak English, more or less put me off for life), all these online card games like Heathstone just don't interest me, I don't play many mobile games (and at the moment, I play none), I rarely play online multiplayer because the internet in China is too bad, and my computer is too bad to play the latest games. So, despite spending 10 hours per week playing video games, I just haven't kept up beyond the particular franchises. So I'm looking forward to Phantom Pain, Ass Creed Victory, FFXV and Bloodborne, but that's it.

As with books, because there are so many, I've given up keeping up and I just read either pulpy action fiction books like Warhammer 40k, or particular character driven fantasy novels like the Assassin and the Fool series or Game of Thrones, or I read the old classics for free on my iPad to expand my culture. But when I walk into a book shop now, I don't even try to read them all.

And for T.V., I watch it all online, and only things that interest me. So, House of Cards, Game of Thrones, Archer, John Oliver, One Piece... I watched Breaking Bad, and Hannibal, but that's it for about 4 years. Again, there is just so much crap I've given up and only watch things that people talk about often enough to convince me it's good.

As for films, I live in China. WHich means that while I used to be hugely up to date on every single film that came out for about 3 years, I now can't watch very many and the tickets are four times as expensive (and this is as a student), so that has also fallen by the wayside. THank god the Marvel films release here at least.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

To lose touch, you need to be in touch. I mean ... what music did I have growing up in the early to late 90s? Garbage! Oh sure, you could pull out a few rare gems, like Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, Radiohead ... other than that? GARBAGE.

Actually, we had some alright tv shows though. Early South Park, Aeon Flux, The Maxx ...

I find popular culture frightening now! *Throws cane at children* .... In all honesty, I'll dance to anything catchy. Why bother with bands when all you need is some beats, and a few people to dance with .... and lines of blow. So ... old music, new music, I don't really care so long as it has one saving grace. You can dance to it.

But yeah, I don't really get popular culture now. I'm even playing more retro games like The Guardian Legend, and other NES games than I do anything new .... no greater exercise for honing those once gloried reflexes you had as a kid than pulling out the old grey NES console. That rectangular pad of hardened plastic giving your old fogey hands blisters.

 

[Dimitriov]

When you say popular, let's assume you mean that it's popular because it's GOOD, not because everyone watches even though it's SHIT, okay? We cool with that proviso? 'Kay.

I'm not okay with that definition! *cue mock outrage*

The word popular comes from the Latin populus, which means people. Popular is just an adjective that means pertaining to the people. The word quite literally applies to whatever the majority of the people are watching.

It also has often had the connotation of being plebeian, or common, in the negative sense. So it might in fact, by its very definition, be taken to mean things that are in fact bad.

Here endeth the unsolicited etymology lesson.

OT: Yes, I have realized I am becoming increasingly out of touch with popular culture. No doubt in large part because I am in my late 20s and, perhaps even more damning, I am studying Medieval history at university. My sensibilities and the things with which I am most familiar seem to be sliding backwards in time!

Well, that's not entirely true.

 

[McElroy]

I'm in touch. Not perfectly, of course, but I follow the news and general buzz. I'm not the most active consumer of pop culture PRODUCTS themselves at least not anymore, but I'm somewhat on top of most things.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

I'm not okay with that definition! *cue mock outrage*

The word popular comes from the Latin populus, which means people. Popular is just an adjective that means pertaining to the people. The word quite literally applies to whatever the majority of the people are watching.

It also has often had the connotation of being plebeian, or common, in the negative sense. So it might in fact, by its very definition, be taken to mean things that are in fact bad.

Here endeth the unsolicited etymology lesson.

OT: Yes, I have realized I am becoming increasingly out of touch with popular culture. No doubt in large part because I am in my late 20s and, perhaps even more damning, I am studying Medieval history at university. My sensibilities and the things with which I am most familiar seem to be sliding backwards in time!

Well, that's not entirely true.

Also has links to the 'populares' also. People who rallied the masses, the plebs, as a means to power in ancient Rome. So not just people, but figures of popularity amidst the people. I also agree with all of what you said, Thomas Hobbes was right ... we need an absolute monarch to guarantee the rights of all! In all honesty, I don't believe this ... but I think a monarchy holds a certain amount of charm for people who see that large government inevitably just means large corruption.

Whilst it might be anger inducing to see how some nobles lived. In palatial estates, who can consign thousands to suffering, prosperity or death with a single signing of their name .... but the difference is we STILL have yet, and instead of a handful of nobles we have tens of thousands who make ungodly amounts of money, but don't need to ever be voted in due to their auxiliary attachment to politicians.

(Funnily enough my first degree was a history major, also. So ... yeah. Do you think simply studying history makes one antiquated, or merely does one become antiquated because we are educated to see how things change over time?)

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

God if I were any less hip, I wouldn't be able to walk. I got no fucking clue what the kids are about these days and frankly I'm dreading my twin daughter's teenage years.

 

[Bizzaro Stormy]

It's hard to work with kids and not be aware of a lot of it. I generally don't indulge in it though. I listen to books on tape when going to work so my radio doesn't do much music playing these days, and my wife is the one who likes new T.V. shows. The thing is that there are already so many great songs, movies, T.V. shows, books, whatever already in existence that I just find it hard to really get into the newer stuff.

 

[murrow]

I know nothing of popular music. Outside classical, some genres of metal, and anime soundtracks, my listening habits are quite limited.

I also don't care for multi-volume book franchises, like A Song of Ice and Fire. I generally know what they are about, though.

And I don't follow mainstream comic releases. Instead, I wait for them to become "classics" and I buy them in bundle.

 

[Thaluikhain]

we need an absolute monarch to guarantee the rights of all! In all honesty, I don't believe this ... but I think a monarchy holds a certain amount of charm for people who see that large government inevitably just means large corruption.

Note the massive amount of stories where the happy ending is a good ruler gets total power and everything is fine forever because of this.

This is exactly the way things work in real life, just unfortunately only on distant alien planets.

(Funnily enough my first degree was a history major, also. So ... yeah. Do you think simply studying history makes one antiquated, or merely does one become antiquated because we are educated to see how things change over time?)

Eh, people make the same decisions over and over, what's old becomes new again.

I had a lecturer who described Cicero's Cataline Orations as "The WMDs are at Cataline's house". The Sicilian expedition during the Peloponnesian Wars was a few Rolling Stones songs away from being the Vietnam War.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I'm a unique little flower, I couldn't possibly know about anything mainstream, sheeple.


I'm kidding, obviously. I'm vaguely aware of what's going on in most areas, if not very interested. For example, I'm aware of One Direction and I've heard One Direction songs, but it was only the other day that someone at work mentioned that one song I recognised was a One Direction song. I'm not one of those people that thinks music died in 1980 or something ridiculous like that, it's just chart stuff that's a bit too bland & manufactured for me to pay much attention to.

I'll usually get into any films or TV a while after they're first out, I'm not really on the ball enough to catch everything brand new. People keep telling me I'd love Sons of Anarchy, but I just can't bring myself to get excited about it.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Note the massive amount of stories where the happy ending is a good ruler gets total power and everything is fine forever because of this.

This is exactly the way things work in real life, just unfortunately only on distant alien planets.

Heh ... I did say that I didn't honestly believe it. Just that the same problems are re-enacted, regrdless of the style of government. We haven't tried ZERO government yet. But I'm guessing then you'd just get megacorporations due to the collapse of national borders.

Though there are plenty of fairytales that end with a monarchy having a successful family chain leading to prosperity. Princess gets a prince, etc. What I've always found somewhat weird about these fairytales is that the focus of women achieving happiness via someone hanging off their arm ... not sure if that's empowering or problematic, neither or both.

Eh, people make the same decisions over and over, what's old becomes new again.

I had a lecturer who described Cicero's Cataline Orations as "The WMDs are at Cataline's house". The Sicilian expedition during the Peloponnesian Wars was a few Rolling Stones songs away from being the Vietnam War.

Hmmm, I never thought about that. But yeah, reminds me of a passage by George Bernard Shaw;

"If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience."

 

[Frezzato]

God if I were any less hip, I wouldn't be able to walk. I got no fucking clue what the kids are about these days and frankly I'm dreading my twin daughter's teenage years.

Aha. Not to diminish everyone else's responses here, but your comment interests me greatly. In less than 10 years you may find yourself accompanying your daughters to whatever clone of Miley Cyrus is big at the time. Or it could literally be her clone by then.

I've seen a handful of posts online regarding dads in their 40s taking their girls to teenie concerts and I have to admit that I initially found it odd, but this is a new age of parenting isn't it. I've run across quite a few middle aged men who make an effort to stay involved with their kids, both boys and girls alike, and it's kind of charming how they possess an almost intimate knowledge of shows like Dora the Explorer and such.

.

snip

This is off topic, but it took me a while to realize that your avatar is Dog from Footrot Flats. Is that comic the equivalent of how Peanuts [https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/peanut__121009144730-275x276.jpg] used to be here in the US? Meaning is it iconic and revered?

 

[Johnny Impact]

I've never read anything by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Jim Butcher or George Martin.

I'll give you a pass on the rest, but THIS....THIS is a mistake. Please at least tell me you read. Not enough readers out there. Not sure there ever have been.

OT: I've avoided most popular TV shows for as long as I can remember, especially comedies (notable exception for South Park). Never watched a single episode of Friends, Jersey Shore, Walking Dead, or Survivor. Only saw one of Seinfeld and found it staggeringly, stupefyingly unfunny. Not sure I could name any show in the top five right now. As I don't have cable, I have to wait for shows I do care about.

My opinion on sports ranges from casual contempt to seething volcanic hatred depending on the day/event. I wouldn't even know pro sports existed if they weren't thrown in my face all the time.

I have no idea what dating and romance look like nowadays. The last time I asked a woman out was (checks watch) the year 1997. The closest I get to female contact is watching videos on feminism.

I don't vote or follow politics. Democracy is an illusion. I read a piece stating the voters have approximately 3% control over leaders and policy. I have a hard time taking interest in oligarchy when others have all the olig-.

I don't do fashion. And from the looks of the people on the street, hardly anyone does! Actually I simply don't care what the "right" way to dress is.

I would avoid popular music if I could. The radio is on all day at my work. There is no good radio where I live. We have shitty teenybopper pop, two country stations, and a lame-ass overplayed top 40 from the 1970s classic rock station. All are like having raw industrial waste poured in my ears. Oh, sure, lots of people would say the same about the stuff I listen to. The difference is they're wrong.

 

[sageoftruth]

I'm pretty out of touch with TV, since I hardly every watch it. In my free time, I game, exercise or read.

Also, I get all of my news from the Economist, since I really don't trust any other news media. Being from the US, there are a lot of local news stories that I end up missing since the Economist has the rest of the world to cover as well.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I've never read anything by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Jim Butcher or George Martin.

I'll give you a pass on the rest, but THIS....THIS is a mistake. Please at least tell me you read. Not enough readers out there. Not sure there ever have been.

I do, I just never fancied borderline-YA fantasy. It's pretty much what everybody reads around here apparently, so I guess saying I've never read anything by them would come across as asking "What's a book" to most people. I like classier reads like Bukowski, Carver, Phil K. Dick, Hemingway, Lovecraft, McCarthy, Twain, Vonnegut and all those lovely chaps.

 

[Ishal]

I don't think I've ever heard a One Direction song. Or, if I did, I wasn't aware that's what it was. Which is just as good, honestly.

I'd say the biggest thing I don't get into is movies. I'm just not a fan of the medium/genre. I can't be arsed to watch them anymore. To the point where I actively avoid them. I don't like going to theaters, and I don't like sitting down for 2ish hours to watch something I likely don't care about. At this rate the only movie I'll likely see any time soon will be the new Star Wars. And honestly, even that will be a stretch, cuz I'll have to go to a theater. And, well, fuck theaters.

 

[Ishal]

I would avoid popular music if I could. The radio is on all day at my work. There is no good radio where I live. We have shitty teenybopper pop, two country stations, and a lame-ass overplayed top 40 from the 1970s classic rock station. All are like having raw industrial waste poured in my ears. Oh, sure, lots of people would say the same about the stuff I listen to. The difference is they're wrong.

I feel the same way. But my buddies always used to get on my case about it. Thing is, I always had one question for them.

"Where was the last place you heard progressive death metal? Or moombahcore dubstep? Or electronica?"

Answer is almost always "nowhere." Which is basically my point. You don't hear that stuff when you're out in the general public. You'll never hear that in a Subway, or a Walmart, or your local office on the radio. They'll remain ignorant of it, and they'll be happier. I can't say the same for the types of music they like.

It's no end of the world scenario. I don't really mind listening to it. I can tune it out. It's just it'd be nice if they understood that I might want to remain ignorant about certain things, just like they would.