No Interest In Mainstream Culture

[Moxie]

I have little to no interest in things pertaining to mainstream culture, such as:

 

Popular/classic films ("Star Trek", "Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter"), anime, manga, top hits on the radio, etc.

 

This has a lot to do with the christian teaching that it is sinful to love the world and the things of the world. That teaching had more of an effect on me than I realised.

 

I am clueless about what could pique my curiosity, just about as clueless as an Amish person is about the post-modern world. Don't get me wrong; I watch a fair amount of youtube videos that interest me, and I use technology on a regular basis. I just never got interested in what most people like.

 

I feel like I am completely out of touch with the world, just as I was when I was a christian. I don't mean to sound crass, but can someone give me a reason to tune into all that I have missed? I can't force myself to become interested, but I need to catch up and "get with the program" as the saying goes.

[RogueScholar]

No worries, there are no rules against not personally appreciating "popular culture." Maybe take some time, do some thinking and consider what you do like or would like to try. The world is immense and full of glorious experiences. Maybe just try a few things and "go with it." Like many things in life, it's going to be trial and error. I'm not all that into movies for the most part and I do not particularly have any affinity for "geeky things" such as Star Trek and so on. Honestly, at first glance, my life is pretty mundane as I do the commute, work, gym and sleep routine during the week with the rest of the folks. However, on my time off I'm tearing up the trails with my hiking shoes, and hanging off of cliffs from a rope and probably an ill conceived climbing/rappelling anchor. Recently, I've found an interest in deep self exploration but will not go into all that here. Point being, there are so many things that you can enjoy, you need not worry about shoehorning your self into a particular box.

[bleedblue22]

The last thing we need is yet another pop culture drone whose bank of knowledge is filled up with information like "who were the Bachelor contestants last season?"

 

Some things in pop culture are interesting and worth the time, but a lot of it is just crap. But don't take my word for it. Maybe find some people to introduce you to certain things like Harry Potter, Star War, etc. People love to share their favorite movies/books and watch how other people react to seeing them for the first time. See if you like it. If not, move on to something else.

 

Remember, you do not need to be molded to conform to the interests of society. Your interests should be molded to fit yourself.

[Ellinas]

What's the problem?

 

I watch a bit of sci-fi and fantasy as light entertainment, but am hardly a "fan".  Wouldn't bother me if I never saw any more of it.  I rarely listen to music, have little understanding of celebrities (caused a girl in work last week to look at me at utter disbelief when I asked who on earth is this "Kardashian" she was talking about), can't stand sport etc etc...

 

Ask me about ancient Mediterranean history and mythology, I've a fair chance of having a stab at an answer.  Ask me to name the latest hit record, I wouldn't have a clue.

 

If you don't like mainstream culture, get on with the stuff that is not mainstream.  Your interests are yours; no-one else is obliged to share them, any more than you are obliged to share theirs.

[Moxie]

Thanks for your replies.

 

Come to think of it, the only people who ever had the audacity to question my knowledge of pop culture and judge me harshly for my lack of knowledge were christians, particularly those with whom I attended church. Hypocrites.

 

What interests me? Conspiracy stories and theories, alternate histories, politics, psychological horror movies, number games like Kakuro and Sudoku, logic puzzles, and most nonfiction literature.

[sdelsolray]

Thanks for your replies.

 

Come to think of it, the only people who ever had the audacity to question my knowledge of pop culture and judge me harshly for my lack of knowledge were christians, particularly those with whom I attended church. Hypocrites.

 

What interests me? Conspiracy stories and theories, alternate histories, politics, psychological horror movies, number games like Kakuro and Sudoku, logic puzzles, and most nonfiction literature.

Well, there you go.  You have identified some areas that interest you.  Whether they are "popular" with others is not relevant.  Spend time with what interests you and don't worry about whether your interests are popular.  I have several interests that are not that popular, in terms of being in the top ten, or top 100 or perhaps even in the top 1,000.  That doesn't change my interest in them, or the amount of time I spend with them.

[Thurisaz]

The last thing we need is yet another pop culture drone whose bank of knowledge is filled up with information like "who were the Bachelor contestants last season?"

 

Some things in pop culture are interesting and worth the time, but a lot of it is just crap. [...]

This.

 

Just because most other people like something, agree on something etc. doesn't mean it's true or worth your time. Once upon a time most people believed the Earth is flat.

 

And especially these days where the media and such aim for the lowest possible level (because that way you get the most clicks / viewers / readers) just "not being into the mainstream" is often a quality seal.

 

Others don't like you the way you think? I say, fuck them. Metaphorically.

[midniterider]

I have little to no interest in things pertaining to mainstream culture, such as:

 

Popular/classic films ("Star Trek", "Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter"), anime, manga, top hits on the radio, etc.

 

This has a lot to do with the christian teaching that it is sinful to love the world and the things of the world. That teaching had more of an effect on me than I realised.

 

I am clueless about what could pique my curiosity, just about as clueless as an Amish person is about the post-modern world. Don't get me wrong; I watch a fair amount of youtube videos that interest me, and I use technology on a regular basis. I just never got interested in what most people like.

 

I feel like I am completely out of touch with the world, just as I was when I was a christian. I don't mean to sound crass, but can someone give me a reason to tune into all that I have missed? I can't force myself to become interested, but I need to catch up and "get with the program" as the saying goes.

 

Mainstream culture is what the television wants us to feel that is important. To heck with that. Enjoy what you like. 

[♦ Fuego ♦]

I'm familiar with popular culture of the 60s and 70s, having been raised in front of the TV. After that, I pretty well checked out, other than what was forced on me through peers. I ignored music and fashion, and most TV so I could focus on JEEEESSSUUUUSSSS.

 

After deconverting about 8 years ago, I went back to some of the music I missed, but most of the cultural checkpoints that my peers shared were missed by me. No big deal really. If they bring it up, I tell them I missed out on that.

I never really got back into TV, and most of the pop music after the 80s was lousy to my ears. But I'm doing just fine, and most of the folks I hang with in the live music scene now focus on the 30s-60s era sound anyway.

 

Just read Harry Potter after deconverting, and ate it up. The movies are nothing close to the world inside the books. But that's how it hit me. Like the others have said, be yourself and do what you like. There are plenty of others with your interests. I love logic puzzles as well, and spend a good amount of time with them.

[AndrewTomlinson]

Thanks for your replies.

 

Come to think of it, the only people who ever had the audacity to question my knowledge of pop culture and judge me harshly for my lack of knowledge were christians, particularly those with whom I attended church. Hypocrites.

 

What interests me? Conspiracy stories and theories, alternate histories, politics, psychological horror movies, number games like Kakuro and Sudoku, logic puzzles, and most nonfiction literature.

The others said it quite well. Conformity is not a virtue. Foster your individual interests and surround yourself with people who appreciate your uniqueness. If your friends are horrified that you don't know all about the Kardashians (whoever they are), then it might be a good time to seek new relationships.

 

Like you, I don't find most mainstream entertainment to be of any interest or value. I haven't bothered with getting cable or satellite tv, I just use Netflix and YouTube watch what interests me at the time. I like Sudoku as well. I just checked out Kakuro and it seems learning that would be a challenge, so thank you for introducing me to that.

[mymistake]

I have absolutely no interest in Kim Kardashian, Justin Beber, Duck Dynasty and a few dozen others that constantly make the news but I can't eve bother remembering their names.

 

Be yourself.

[moanareina]

Ah...yes I never really was interested in mainstream pop culture either. Though there has been a time in my late teens when I detested it. And it was not so much because I did not like mainstream things because there have been some things I certainly would have enjoyed. But I wanted to be cool and to be cool you could not love what everybody else loves. For example...I detested inline skating because cool people would skate board...inline skating was for mainstream pussies...so one day I realized how stupid that thinking was and decided that, even though I might lose coolness points, when I find something to be fun, I would do it. And I got inline skates...

 

So I think, don't worry about mainstream and what other people like. Find out what you like and if it is mainstream so it is...if not good too. I am still not too much into mainstream, but once in a while I like a song or a style or whatever and I don't feel ashamed for it.

 

Leaving Church and all it was one of the main questions I had to face: Who am I and what do I want? I still am on the search but have found more and more things I like and love. I think it is important to take that time to figure out who you are and all without being distracted by everybody else. You can get ideas from others and see if that is something you enjoy but you can be totally honest with yourself. Also, interests shift with time. And you will discover and discover...and try things out and leave them and get to something else through something you tried or considered.

 

Just go and play

[yunea]

I find a lot of mainstream entertainment to be dull and clichéd, but one must pay attention to why something is popular. Sometimes things are liked out of peer pressure and for their shock value, in fact this is more common than people like to admit, and sometimes things are liked because they are, in fact, good, well made, very likeable things. I like some huge, world famous bands, but damnit they can write a fine song.

 

You've been given good advice above: Do what you like. It's okay to have a hobby that nobody else has, and it's okay to have a hobby that everybody else has. The only thing that matters is that you don't feel it's a complete waste of time doing it.

 

If you really must know what those dull celebs are up to just so you can "talk" about them with other people and avoid their weird looks, you will most likely find they rarely do new things. They stay in their character of being silly/smart/addicted/violent/risky/stupid/whatever. If you grab one tabloid magazine, you've seen them all. Heh, it seems I keep up with celeb rumours just fine by reading tabloid magazine covers as I stand in the cashier line at the grocery store. 

[Positivist]

Hey JoJo,

 

I'm in a similar situation. I find most movies boring and a waste of money, and because I wasn't allowed to listen to pop music when I was growing up (even Christian "rock" was banned in our house!) there are huge gaps in my cultural knowledge. I am finally getting honest with others and saying, "I haven't a clue who that is". I am fairly confident that I have a rich life (and a rich inner life) without the cultural crap that gets thrown at us.

 

Thank goodness being a dork is kind of cool these days! 

[Blood]

I have little to no interest in things pertaining to mainstream culture, such as:

 

Popular/classic films ("Star Trek", "Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter"), anime, manga, top hits on the radio, etc.

 

This has a lot to do with the christian teaching that it is sinful to love the world and the things of the world. That teaching had more of an effect on me than I realised.

 

I am clueless about what could pique my curiosity, just about as clueless as an Amish person is about the post-modern world. Don't get me wrong; I watch a fair amount of youtube videos that interest me, and I use technology on a regular basis. I just never got interested in what most people like.

 

I feel like I am completely out of touch with the world, just as I was when I was a christian. I don't mean to sound crass, but can someone give me a reason to tune into all that I have missed? I can't force myself to become interested, but I need to catch up and "get with the program" as the saying goes.

 

You really haven't missed much. Pop culture is so stupid that something just very slightly intelligent like "Star Trek" develops a huge following, because it's so unusual to have anything in pop culture that makes you think just slightly. 

[wyson]

I wouldn't worry.  My wife is a born and bred atheist, completely "normal" and she has no time for pop culture either.  She finds most of it a bit ridiculous.  She refuses to see 99% of Hollywood movies for instance as they have stupid plot holes or some such that require you to suspend your disbelief and she doesn't enjoy bullshitting herself. 

 

I must admit, when I was a Christian I was quite elitist too, but at a certain stage of my deconversion I started to enjoy pop music.  I got pretty obsessed with Gangnam Style for instance, enough to annoy everyone in earshot of my iPad.  I also found myself really, really enjoying the Avengers in the cinema.  I'm going to see the Avengers Age of Ultron tomorrow.  Again, just silly fun.

 

I was at my most serious when I first deconverted.  I felt I NEEDED Bach to survive, started reading about the history of music, got into Serialism.  My favourite movie was Werckmeister Harmonies by Bela Tarr, a Hungarian Black and White arthouse movie with 11 minute tracking shots of people walking down the street!  

 

As a Christian I was so used to dealing with heavy issues, life and death, eternal damnation, blood guts and glory that it spilled into my appreciation of the arts.  It needed to have grave, serious intent, with at least one eye on greatness. Once the conditioning started to unravel, I started to "get"  the lightweight frivolous delights of pop culture.  Its just happy and silly, to be enjoyed without intellectual posturing or ideology. All you have to do is let the 5 year old in you out!  Some of it is wonderful indeed!

[Lucy]

Try out a few different popular things. See if you like them. If it's boring, then don't bother with it.

 

When it comes to TV, sometimes I feel like I'm fully immersed and engaged in some shows. Nearly everything in the show is very interesting and entertaining. And with some shows I don't really care what's going on.

 

After watching/reading something, ask yourself, "Did I really enjoy that or was it just something to pass time?"

 

A lot of TV watchers are just zoned out and not particularly enjoying what they're watching. I don't really like being in that state of mind.

 

 

 

You really haven't missed much. Pop culture is so stupid that something just very slightly intelligent like "Star Trek" develops a huge following, because it's so unusual to have anything in pop culture that makes you think just slightly. 

 

 

I agree with this. It's annoying to me when something is just barely intellectual and it gets a huge following that thinks it's the most deep thing they've ever seen.

 

I remember seeing one scene in a TV show and I thought it was an easy play for adding depth. And the next day someone else who watched the show was raving on and on about how profound it was and how it's one of the best scenes they've ever seen in a TV show. I think they were so impressed because the show had a scene that paralleled a scene from the Bible. I guess they thought nobody else has ever thought of referencing the Bible as symbolism before.

 

"OMG! Biblical symbolism in a TV show! This is pure genius!"

 

Making biblical references seems to add instant and easy profundity to anything. I remember someone else making fun of this many years ago. If you make a movie about a short circuited robot named "Super Robotron" destroying the city, it's just another sci-fi movie, but if you name the robot something like "Jesus" then it's a suddenly deep and thought provoking reference to how religion destroys society.

[ExCBooster]

Nobody's going to make you watch stuff you don't want to. That said, though, if you wanted to get into different media, you could look at reviews, and pay attention to those by people that seem to share your tastes. I don't like everything put out by popular culture. However, a lot of it does have good things to offer. The sci fi and fantasy that I like, I like because it uses it as a means of discussing important or enlightening issues. That's the appeal, I think, of a lot of sci fi and fantasy, even the stuff I don't necessarily like. We don't have hard AI yet, but Isaac Asimov used sci fi to discuss what it might be like to have robots, and the ethical challenges and social change it might mean. The entire body of work of H. P. Lovecraft - sci fi or fantasy horror - was basically about the implications of advances in scientific understanding of the universe and our place in it. With the Theories of Relativity, and the emergence of Quantum Mechanics, as well as The Great Debate (those swirly "nebulae" weren't just clouds of gas in our galaxy... they were whole other galaxies. Humanity's cozy sense of scale simply exploded, in the early years of the 20th Century.) From The Call of Cthulhu:

 

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

 

So, yeah, there's a whole lot to explore. Even comic books, with their outlandish and outsized scale and characters, make a perfect medium for dealing with interesting questions. Is Batman solving or creating the problem of "super-villains" in Gotham City? Is he the disease, or the symptom, or the cure? Video games, too, are a unique, powerful way of telling a story or exploring an idea. 

 

I don't care if it's popular. I don't care what format it's in. Tell me a story. Tell me a good story. Entertain me. Make me care. Challenge me. Let's play. Let's explore. Let's think. 

 

It's like eating food. If you get the recommendation from someone whose taste you trust, you can try it, maybe even twice, and if you don't like it, or can't acquire the taste, you don't have to eat it. But keep an open mind: there's so many wonderful, enriching things out there.

[GraphicsGuy]

I feel like I am completely out of touch with the world, just as I was when I was a christian. I don't mean to sound crass, but can someone give me a reason to tune into all that I have missed? I can't force myself to become interested, but I need to catch up and "get with the program" as the saying goes.

 

Hey JoJo,

 

If you're not interested, you're not interested. There is nothing wrong with that.

 

I can relate to how you feel in one specific area: music.

 

When I was a Christian, I listened to nothing but Christian rock and worship music. I developed absolutely no interest in classic rock/metal, I knew no one who loved that music and I have absolutely no emotional connection to that music.

 

So, I do find it difficult to relate to some people who are all about that kind of music.

 

When I left religion, I really wanted to find music that I could kind of call "my own" in a sense. Nothing mainstream, nothing common.

 

I ended up discovering a bunch of European/Scandinavian rock/metal groups that I absolutely love and that 90% of the people I meet have no clue who/what they are.

 

Anyway, my entire point is that there is subculture outside of mainstream media that may pique your interest. It just takes time to find it.

[Ravenstar]

When did Star Trek become mainstream?  Oh gosh.. I was the weird one for years because I liked Star Trek, Doctor Who and ...LOTR (of course that is many years before Jackson - you know - when it was a collection of books you had to read)  Nope, I was never 'mainstream'. (as well as reading Heinlein, Asimov and Herbert). Sorry - I've always been a sci-fi geek/nerd.. and that was the fringe… Does that mean I'm in the popular group now?  LOL 

 

But really… following your own authentic interests is what will make you, you. And yes, pop culture is horrid…(really - stay far away from it) Some days I'd give my eye teeth to talk to someone who was into their own things and not what the herd follows, I have a special hate for pro sports and small talk, But those who do their own thing are the people I admire and gravitate to.