"Oh, you didn't watch SpongeBob growing up? Yeah, we can tell..."

 Pop culture has always been fun and fascinating to me, and I liked to think that I was decently 'well-versed' in a lot of it, but I find it so interesting to chat with people and see how their realm of pop culture knowledge can be so different from my own.

My blog post title refers to a meme I must've seen 10 years ago, and I think it is funny but also shows how not being familiar with the jargon and in-jokes of a huge part of current society can sort of reduce one's social in-ness. I related to the meme because SpongeBob was often on tv when I was younger, and I admit I thought it was funny with very silly humor, and quotes from the show and the movie infiltrated conversation, with some lines popping out to this day.

I don't think someone who never watched SpongeBob is necessarily missing out in any way, but I do think it's interesting that the long-running TV show helped shape the sense of humor for countless people. As was pointed out in the "Death by Harry Potter" reading - the popular culture that captivates young people now is going to be inherent to the actual culture 15 years from now whether you're into it or not.

On the flip side, I also take slight offence when people treat popular media as trash and for people less intelligent than themselves. In about 2013 or so, I remember a Facebook post going around that was basically a copy/paste post that included things like "I've never seen Game of Thrones. I don't read Twilight. Britney Spears can't sing and her music is offensive, (etc.)" with the point being that the poster was above that trash and condescended popular, conformist media. In my opinion, the attitude of "I'm better than this, and I'm better than you for it" is childish and arrogant. (There's a silly song I heard once, the lyrics were "It's okay to not like things/ It's okay, but don't be a !@#$ about it," and that sums up my overall opinion on the matter.)

II am the oldest child in my family, born in the late 80s, so most of my own interests would have been forming in the early 90s. However, most of my childhood friends were the youngest in their families, with their older siblings enjoying TV and movies and music from their own childhood epochs while we all played in the various living rooms over the years. Because of that, I feel like I was introduced to more 80s content than I would have otherwise been exposed to.

The years of childhood are almost like geological eras in pop culture, and I find that to be so, SO interesting! Whether you watched Disney, Nickelodeon, or PBS as a kid, and over which years seems to determine humor, music, and even friends that you might be drawn toward. My question to the group falls into this sort of area: Which era of your life do you feel was the most pop-culture-relevant to you? How does that play into your life currently? Do you still have fondness and nostalgia for those things? I would love to know your relationship to pop culture and how it has (or hasn't!) shaped you.