It may have happened to me

When one enters the adult world, one becomes aware that there are some adults who just don’t have a clue about the  world. I thought this was a result of the person or the personality but now I think it might be something else.

I may have become that person in a cultural sense. I no longer have a clue on some common  technology and I no longer have a clue about pop culture. Is the world passing me by? And if it is , why is that?

Three things have happened that may have resulted in this cultural deficiency: 1. I moved to northern Wisconsin where nothing is East or West Coast hip 2. My children have grown and gone on their own adventures ( no young people around) or 3. I have become focused more on my own sense of what is important rather than on the cultural sense of importance.

The first reason is clear enough. There is no radio, TV, newspapers, and buzz about what is new, hip, and current. There is no watercooler talk among colleagues about the ‘happening’. Oh, yes, I can go look for these things but they are not present in my environment. The morning radio shows do not talk about the ‘new’  ad infinitum. There are no billboards advertising the new ‘place’, ’singing group’, coffee, tea, movie, or heartthrob.  Yes,  we actually have dead zones where cellphones do not work for any carrier. Qu’elle horrreur!

The second is clear enough, too. Your children’s disdain for uncool parents is a natural source of  ’lay it on your parents about how backwards they are’ superiority. This expression of superiority is demonstrated by telling your parents what it is they do not know. This is an excellent source of today’s cultural information. It starts with you as a parent saying something that is totally contrary to what your child knows. They give you a look that shows you are not with it. Then your son or daughter gives you a flippant comment that reveals their knowledge is superior to your yours on some pop culture point. Voila! You now have a clue about something in pop culture.

The third is more difficult to describe. Perhaps it is a dismissiveness that pop culture is not enduring and that it will soon be surplanted with something even  more new and  different. It may be arrogance, too. Possibly even ‘experience’. In any case, it is a view that “I don’t need to know this as it is not important for me to function in the world I created”.   That belief soon leads one to avoid the sources in which new cultural information is distributed.

I spend no time at YouTube unless a blogger points me there. I have no Facebook page. I saw a few episodes of LOST this past year when I learned it was a cultural phenom and I was underwhelmed. I cannot tell you the names of new bands and what music genre they play.  

I am now culturally illiterate. Or old. Or both.

When choosing a new phone ( after a canoe sank beneath me and destroyed my old one) I chose the simplest model. I did not wish to invest the time nor money in an iPhone or 3G whatchamacallit network. A phone that rings is sufficient for me. Internet downloads of news, weather, and sports was a non-seller. Sending pix by phone? Yes, it is nice, but necessary? I don’t think so.   

So bring me up to date. What did you get for Christmas that is a ‘cultural now’?  What is new that I do not know about?