It’s getting to the point that there should be a Meme University or College program where people have to study some previous pop culture in order to understand modern memes. For people in their 40s (like me), I grew up watching much of these things so they come naturally, people in their 30s have a grasp of them but people in their 20s and younger seem to have to backtrack and almost treat it like history class to make sense of it all.
A few months ago I made a joke with my teenage niece about Star Wars (Star Wars! I thought was more mainstream and more familiar to people than Star Trek) and she politely just said ‘never watched it, I guess I’ll have to watch the movie’ … she had never watched any of them! It’s a good sign that there is no more monopoly on pop culture any more … but it is also making it hard to connect to people outside your own references that you grew up with.
This also doesn’t imply its an ageism thing either … I know lots of people my age who have absolutely no clue what I’m talking about when it comes to memes or Star Trek or pop culture references.
I just think it would be hilarious to see a Meme University started for this reason.
The real issue is humanity is pumping out more and more content each year, to the point where it would take several lifetimes to consume it all. This means there is no big central pillar anymore, simply everyone is into just their own stuff. Everyone’s tastes are so unique that other than some cursory similarities in taste most people still have wildly different preferences. It was always this way, but now with near endless content of books, blogs, websites, news, tv shows, movies, music, and video games people have more choice than ever and each choice means they are missing more and more other content by making that choice.
Its so overwhelming its making some people check out of media consumption nearly entirely.
It’s getting to the point that there should be a Meme University or College program where people have to study some previous pop culture in order to understand modern memes. For people in their 40s (like me), I grew up watching much of these things so they come naturally, people in their 30s have a grasp of them but people in their 20s and younger seem to have to backtrack and almost treat it like history class to make sense of it all.
A few months ago I made a joke with my teenage niece about Star Wars (Star Wars! I thought was more mainstream and more familiar to people than Star Trek) and she politely just said ‘never watched it, I guess I’ll have to watch the movie’ … she had never watched any of them! It’s a good sign that there is no more monopoly on pop culture any more … but it is also making it hard to connect to people outside your own references that you grew up with.
This also doesn’t imply its an ageism thing either … I know lots of people my age who have absolutely no clue what I’m talking about when it comes to memes or Star Trek or pop culture references.
I just think it would be hilarious to see a Meme University started for this reason.
Lesson 1:
The real issue is humanity is pumping out more and more content each year, to the point where it would take several lifetimes to consume it all. This means there is no big central pillar anymore, simply everyone is into just their own stuff. Everyone’s tastes are so unique that other than some cursory similarities in taste most people still have wildly different preferences. It was always this way, but now with near endless content of books, blogs, websites, news, tv shows, movies, music, and video games people have more choice than ever and each choice means they are missing more and more other content by making that choice.
Its so overwhelming its making some people check out of media consumption nearly entirely.