I’m talking about events, movies, TV shows, books etc. that have made a huge impact on pop culture, but that you have intentionally decided not to partake of. I’m not looking for cult shows like **Buffy the Vampire Slayer ** or The Wire that the vast majority of people have never seen. I’m talking shows that were ranked #1 for several years, but that you never once watched. Here are my intentionally ignored pop culture icons:
I have never:
watched even one minute of American Idol
read even one page of a **Harry Potter ** book
watched a single episode of **Star Trek ** (or seen a single Star Trek movie)
Beside snippets of random reality shows and talent shows, I haven’t watched any of the bazillion series. I didn’t watch Star trek beyond the original series, because I never lived where it came in. I recently had a chance to watch The Next Generation, but it sucks now that it’s 20 years old. I missed the pants showing your ass phase in the 60’s and in the 90’s. I never went to a disco.
I have never played a video game.
I have never owned a microwave.
The last time I wore a watch was in high school.
I have never watched American Idol (and I love music and competitions).
(Born in 1966)
Never owned a pet rock
Never owned a CB Radio
Had an 8-track player, but never owned an 8-track tape.
Never saw any Rocky movie after the first one
Never saw any generation’s big dancing movie - not Saturday Night Fever, no Flashdance, Footloose, Dirty Dancing, not even Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.
The only first-wave slasher flick I saw in a theatre was the second Friday the 13th.
Never saw Porky’s or any of its sequels.
Never saw The Big Chill.
Never saw Ghostbusters.
The only John Hughes teen film I’ve seen is Weird Science - missed all the others.
Never owned an IZOD shirt, a Swatch watch, or parachute pants.
Never played a first-person shooter.
While I watched the locally produced music video shows in the 1980s, I never had MTV until after they’d ditched videos and became the teen reality show network. So I never watched videos on MTV.
Never saw Ren & Stimpy.
Never knew how to do the Macarena.
Never used MySpace, Facebook, or any other social networking site.
Never watched any reality show, except for about 2 minutes of a Survivor where people were standing on logs in a pond. Yep, just standing on logs. I think the goal was to be the last one standing on a log. Pretty dull.
I’m the opposite. I’ve had a lot of game systems. Starting with the 2600, I’ve had Atari, Sega, and Sony consoles. I even had an Atari Jaguar - with the CD add-on! But except for a Virtual Boy that I bought for the novelty factor as much as anything else after it was discontinued (the store was clearing them out $20 for the unit and games $1 each), I’ve never had a Nintendo system. No Mario, no Zelda, nothing.