5.9.07

On Pop Culture and the Internet (a rant)


Lately, I've been complaining to people that I'm feeling old. I've thought about this a lot and pondered if it's because I have a baby now? Is that why I'm feeling old? But what I've realized is that it is not the baby, and I'm not feeling "old" necessarily. I am just feeling the generation gap between me and the younger people.

The crazy thing is, the age difference is not a lot. The youngest person in my team right now is 22...so, not even a 10 year difference. The difference is not the age, it's about the internet. In the past 12 years, we've gone through quite a bit of change with the way we use the internet. When I was in college, the Chat Rooms were huge. I admit, I got sucked in - ended up "friends" from all over world. All lies though, coz who tells the truth in those things?

After that came the message boards (Forums, if you will). I am part of this generation. I read a lot of message boards - my faves are on the sidebare here --> (For anything Rent-related, go to Compulsive Bowlers, For anything TV-related, Television Without Pity is the best.)

Then I started getting invites for LiveJournal, early version of the blog. Friendster came right after that, unfortunately this was the loser version of MySpace. Now, MySpace is so big, it's a generation! I may very well be the last person not to have a MySpace page.

Ok, now my point. With everyone now spending more time on the internet, it's totally a different culture. Losers like myself who are Pop-culture freaks (mostly TV-lovin' geeks) are now kind of a rare breed. I felt this emptiness the most after Lina left. We used to schedule time to talk about Lost. Yes, block out a half an hour to discuss the last episode. Now apparently, I am the last of my kind. Now, if I say "puffy shirt", all I get are a bunch on blank stares. Is it really too much to ask to have someone at work I can fucking talk to about things I care about?

Really, is it too much to ask for someone:
-Who knows the right way to say "How you doin'"?
-Who can spend countless work hours with me plotting the demise of Lost's Michael, because he was the only one we were willing to give up?
-Who knows what I mean when I say "there's a deer just outside eating fruit from the orchard"
-Who would appreciate the fact that I got chummy with TAR's hot hot Oswald?
-Who would spend all day laughing at how awful Clive Owen's King Arthur was but appreciate the fact the he's still hot.
-Who I can compare my "List" with?
-Who can recite by heart the bit that ends with "I told you that bitch crazy!"
-Who would call me at work while in a diner in LA to tell me that Scott Speedman is a few tables down and proceed to plot on how she would work the nerve to take a picture?
-Who thinks the Office is the funniest thing on TV right now
-Who know Aiden is the perfect boyfiend - and Carrie is a fool!!!
-Who rooted for American Idol's Constantine Maroulis only (and only) because he used to play Rent's Roger in a touring company
-Who loves Rome & Six Feet Under as much as I did?
-Who would plan with me our next NYC trip in time for TARcon?

Really...Is that too much to ask?

1 comment:

smokedog said...

Oh, Monica. You are getting older, but its not necessarily a bad thing. I will never understand why or how kids wear their pants so low, or how a lot of people can't write using proper grammar or spelling.