Pop Culture
Are you or is someone you know fantastically knowledgeable about pop culture including, but not limited to obscure television shows from the 1970s, British punk banks, manga, or 1950s sitcoms? I am not. I have friends who are. I used to feel unhip, uneducated, and narrow due to my lack of pop culuture trivia knowledge. No longer! Today I recognize pop culture as trivial!
I am certainly unhip, most likely undereducated, and not terribly narrow. However, my total disinterest in pop culture is, I think, a separate issue. Really, do people amass vast knowledge bases on pop culture because they find it interesting or because they want to impress others with deep understandings of esoteric and basically insipid topics? I will no longer pretend that I find these things interesting.
Comments (RSS)
February 18th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
You forgot a 3rd option, which I think is most likely; we pick it up by accident. ;)
I have vast amounts of trivia knowledge about stuff I really don’t care about, although there’s plenty of whacky pop culture stuff I know because I think it’s funny/weird/interesting/whatever. But it’s absolutely trivial, that’s what makes it trivia. Some people just collect it like others collect stamps.
February 19th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Ok, you win. There is a legitimate reason for being embarrassingly well informed about trivial things. Perhaps either the people I know are too serious about it or I’m too sensitive about not knowing it. Either way, I’m not watching Lost or exploring 1960s comics.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:47 pm
I also include knowledge or interest in sports to be in this same category… Everyone has their thing. It’s just not mine.
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Pop culture has a lot more going for it these days than it used to, as well, in terms of its complexity and in the level of cognitive engagement that it often requires. In many cases it’s not really “insipid” after all. Have you read “Everything Bad is Good For You” ? It discusses this issue specifically. Good book.
February 24th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Is it popular culture more complex now? I haven’t read the book so I’ll have to take your word for it. Certainly I would guess there’s more of it and more means to transmit it. I agree that the level of cognitive engagement it requires to parse has probably increased. I don’t follow about how that proves pop culture isn’t insipid. If you take insipid to mean bland, than you could make an argument about your subjective experience of it. I meant that it was uninteresting and insignificant.
The fact is that I don’t care to find it interesting. I try to consume as little of it as necessary to navigate this culture without seeming like an alien. Sometimes it relieves boredom, too, though I’m sure there are more useful things one could do with that time. I just can’t see the point that pop culture is significant enough to intentionally devote time or cognitive energy to consume it.
February 25th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Part of the point is that sometimes it can be fun.
When I argued against its insipidity, I meant that sometimes, I’ve found that some examples of popular culture have qualities that interest, stimulate, or challenge me. Subjective? Yes, absolutely. Do I have a problem with someone who doesn’t care to pay attention to it? Not at all.
Also, this may be the first time I’ve ever used the word “insipidity.”