Pop Culture Reverences
A recent newspaper article indicated that the knowledge of present-day U.S. teens is lacking when it comes to common historical and cultural references that most people ought to know. Based on the results of a study, a distressingly low percentage of them could identify the general theme of the book 1984, who Senator Joe McCarthy was, or when the American Civil War took place, for example. And if these basics are already neglected, certainly it would be even more troublesome to further inquire as to their understanding of other important “common-knowledge” topics, such as Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, the War of 1812, or the Bible.
Yet, to be fair, it doesn’t appear that the study touched on a cultural area where I’m certain that teens would be able to excel in with ease: pop culture. From Simpsons references to celebrity gossip, advertising memes, scandalized sports stars, and the latest YouTube flash-in-the-pan, there are many inane and trivial subjects by which the entertainment and infotainment industries have been successful in providing a slew of new cultural commonalities. Having grown up in the 1980’s and 1990’s, I can look back and see a significant amount of obtained knowledge which ultimately has very little depth or importance to it – the media was really starting to hone its tactics during those times, after all. As regular readers here are aware, this site already features some articles with my memorialized references to breakfast cereal, Atari games, cartoons, and other children’s shows - just go to the “Nostalgia” category to find others. And most of that deals with just the 1980’s (though I admit I tend to have an advantage in this game, where even the meaningless knowledge of the following decade can also have its swan song).
Anyway, it’s obvious that the majority of those “nostalgic” subjects boils down to contrivedly happy memories of clever children-directed marketing plans, and my own personal entertainment. However, it seems that the one great advantage of having knowledge of my era’s pop culture is that it usually provides a degree of mutual understanding and an instant dialogue with those who are within five years of my age.
Thank you for the memories conversation starters!