Things you don't "get" anymore

“Why is boxing called the sweet sport?”

I see a little over 2800 hits for ‘sweet sport’ and 600K+ for ‘sweet science.’ Definitely non-zero, but decidedly uncommon (and actually rare).

Thank you ThelmaLou.

I don’t get people who go to a concert and instead of just enjoying the show and the atmosphere, hold up their phones to take wobbly and badly framed videos.

Doubly so when the event is being televised and they could have recorded it at home with professional quality

Though Canadian football (CFL) obviously isn’t the same scale as NFL, back in the late ‘60s when I was growing up in Ottawa, one of the then-Ottawa Roughriders’ quarterbacks was Russ Jackson, who was also the Vice-Principal of Sir John A MacDonald High School in Ottawa.

Okay, I admit I can’t explain this rationally (or at all), but there’s something wonderfully soothing to me about watching someone unbox and examine shoes, or clothes, or watches, or whatever. There’s one particular video on YouTube, of a young guy named Saymonte, unboxing a Sole Supremacy “beater box” (a random box of used sneakers, almost always Nikes and Air Jordans; sneakerheads will clean them up and resell them for a profit) that ends with him finding a rare, expensive pair of Nike Yeezy “Red Octobers”, worth well over $1,000.00. I’ve watched this video probably twenty times, because it always lulls me to sleep. Dunno why, but it’s better than Sominex.

I don’t get a lot of new short videos. Ostensibly, they are videos of ‘pranks’ but they are clearly set ups (how come your boyfriend was able sneak up on you when clearly there was someone standing in your kitchen videoing the whole affair?). Bad pranks, bad set ups, bad acting - surely no one believes they are real - so what’s the appeal?

This seems to have moved passed ‘I don’t get it’ territory. Why ‘fuck them’ just because you don’t get it? They aren’t forcing you (or anyone) to watch their videos - nor do they tell people what to buy, just posting about what they think is cool. This reeks of ‘I’m a crotchety old fogy’… and get off my lawn! :wink:

Expensive sneakers or handbags. I don’t feel it. At all. I mean, go ahead, have an indulgence, it’s not my business, enjoy!
But I’m never going to understand it.

Everyone will see them and notice? You have a very expensive thing! The depth of my indifference cannot be measured.

If you’re beaming with pride and point it out to me, I’ll happily share in your joy. But if you’re counting on me to know those are very expensive sneakers, you’re mistaken. I’m not going to.

I don’t think I ‘get’ anything that came after, say, 1989 or thereabouts.

I don’t remember where I heard it but the best advise I’ve received as I enter my golden years is, “You don’t have to get it; You just have to get out of the way.”

On that note, I don’t get being personally offended that pop culture isn’t pandering to me anymore. That’s how it works.

Word. Or do they say that anymore?

I don’t get long walks in the park. Well, my knees don’t get them.

You’re clearly not the kind of person they’re trying to impress.

Part of this is just the rise/explosion in popularity of TikTok, and Vine before it. Short, quick and great for short attention span. Places like YouTube then have tweaked their algorithm so it pushes shorter videos too. A change from view time dominance that caused an earlier rise in Lets Plays, which took over from other videos like animations and react videos that catered to an earlier preference for views.

I sort of do what you say you don’t get, Thelma Lou, and I want to keep my response brief and to the point: I do spend a lot of time on social media, and I enjoy what I do on the Internet. Also, I’m a senior citizen, likely a good deal older than you are, and financially I did not make a success of my life, thus I must make do as best I can with what resources I have, thus my options are limited (there’s a much longer story in this, but I don’t want to burden you with my “what ifs”, “shoulda couldas” and “where did all the time go?” musings). I’m quite fond of The Straight Dope and its message boards; and like Wikipedia, it’s diffuse and has much to offer those with curious minds. It’s far from perfect, yet many people with brilliant minds and wide ranging interests come here. I frequently come here to meet them, and occasionally have had some wonderful exchanges with a good number of them.

Best Wishes, John B

Well, it was tongue-in-cheek, but I am and please do.

I don’t think of the SDMB as “social media.” This is a discussion forum. I also don’t think of reddit or quora as social media, we don’t go there or come to the SDMB for the express purpose of connecting with each other over the details of our personal lives.

What I don’t get is people who post and share every detail of their personal lives on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik-Tok, YouTube, and probably a bunch of places I’ve never heard of. I mean posting every time your kid/dog/pet rabbit does something, sharing pictures of your plates of food at restaurants (I know people who do this), every book you buy (amazon has an option to do this), telling people where you are, what you’re doing, what you’re wearing, what you’re thinking pretty much during every waking moment. If people could figure out how to post while sleeping, they would probably do that. You can “share” your FitBit stats on the quality and details of your sleep, so there’s that.

Did I “get” what you meant? :wink:

Hip-hop music. I was into it since the old school 80s, rocked it through the new school and gangsta 90s, mostly stayed with it through the 00s, but it passed me by around 2010. I never understood the southern crunk thing or any of that Florida stuff with all the yelling.

Well said. I rarely go to Facebook and have no other social media in my life. OK, I guess LinkedIn but visit that even less. When I do go to FB and scroll thru my feed, all of it is just useless drivel (pictures of someone’s food with “Mmmmm!”), as @ThelmaLou mentions. I don’t get why people feel the need to overshare like that. I guess the “likes” give them an endorphin rush or something; it’s probably addictive. Anyway, after a few minutes of scrolling and seeing what people are sharing I start feeling stabby about all the glurge, stealth bragging, and self-congratulations that I log-off. I do not participate in “liking” or comment on anything - I only maintain an account to stay connected to distant family and occasionally find local group activities. I know, I am not doing it right.

Here is another one I don’t get: my daughter watches streamed movies with subtitles, even when the movie is in English, while she keeps her phone in her face doing other stuff (like watching Tik-Tok videos). I guess this is the younger generation’s way of multitasking, because evidently she actually is paying attention to the movie every few seconds, and can stay with the story by quickly reading the subtitles, when she looks up from her phone. I don’t get this.

I forgot how much l like this word!

I have subtitles on all the time (even on YouTube) because my hearing is crap. I don’t wear my hearing aids all the time when I’m home. Also, the subtitles will often give you dialogue that is whispered that no one could hear anyway. And sometimes you’ll get the song title and lyrics of something that’s playing in the background.

But I’m not on my phone at the same time.