So I was at my mom’s on Christmas. My brother and his girlfriend live there. They are both twenty years old.
We got talking about music and then supergroups and, finally, the song “We Are the World”. Turns out they’ve heard it but never seen the video. So I put it on youtube for them and asked them how cool they thought it was that all those artists and singers got together to make a song.
Only one problem. It was hard for them to think it was so cool because they didn’t know/recognize anyone.
I stopped the video. Went back to the start.
I asked them to name those who they recognized.
Final count?
They recognized Michael Jackson. Nobody else.
This astounded me. How in the hell can a 20 year old NOT KNOW ANYONE (save for MJ) from the We Are the World video?! To say I was surprised is putting it mildly. Shocked the hell out of me. It also made me feel very, very old (I’m only 30).
So tell me a specific instance where you were surprised at what someone didn’t know. See if you can top mine.
I think the low point was when a psychiatrist I was seeing thought birds were reptiles. :smack:
A lot of the things I’m surprised at are about science and pop culture. I’ve seen plenty of references to Schrodinger’s Cat in books, essays, jokes, etc, so I was a bit taken aback that most people had never heard of it. I guess they looked blankly at the joke and passed on.
Also, I once misjudged someone. I was at a dorm floor party, and I was telling a story that featured the phrase “conspicuous absence of spoons”. One girl interrupted me and asked for a translation. I couldn’t understand what she didn’t understand- was she stupid, or was this a failure of the educational system? Nope, turned out she was an immigrant from Israel and hadn’t quite picked up the English language yet. This time the :smack: was on me.
ETA: I don’t know about the OP’s friends, but I’m twenty years old and pretty ignorant of pop culture myself. I don’t really watch movies, I don’t watch TV, I don’t (ugh) read gossip magazines, and when I do listen to radio pop, I do it on the radio. Not that I’d watch music videos anyway- I’m a synesthete, and it would clash with my mental colors. So I’d probably only identify Michael Jackson as well- and only because he was so ugly he was scary.
Yes, so I’m glad someone else can imagine my disbelief. I didn’t know how anyone wouldn’t know who Ray or Stevie or Bruuuuuuce were…but they didn’t.
What’s this world coming to?
I don’t think you should be shocked, why would you assume that younger people would recognise all celebrities from older generations? Particularly when most of them (or even all of them?) haven’t had a major hit in years?
I just watched it, and the only ones I recognized on sight were Michael Jackson, Steve Perry, and Ray Charles. I subsequently recognized Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen when I watched it knowing they were in the video. But then, I’m 21.
I’m always amazed when I get a blank stare when I mention The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It doesn’t happen that often, luckily.
Because it was done 5 years before they were even born. MJ has been all over the news for years, much of it showing his progression from what he looked like as a child, to 1985, to now. Everyone else who recorded that song, not so much. So even if they recognized the names - Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Hall and Oats, etc, they’ve all aged 25 years! Here is a list of the singers How many have you heard a lot from in the past 10 years or so, from when your brother and g/f would have been 10 and on. Lindsey Buckingham? Kim Carnes? Steve Perry? I’m surprised they couldn’t get Bruce Springsteen, but not really the rest.
Mine: I was surprised when a I had to teach a college age student, back in 2000 or so, how to use a typewriter. She knew the keyboard part, but was clueless about the rest: how to turn it on, adjust paper, correct a mistake.
Well, I’m sort of shocked that people my age would think that people 10-20 years younger than they are would have the same perceptions of the world or pop culture.
A library that had special bookplates made decades before, but needed the donors name typed on. A few years later we finally were able to get someone to scan it, but then we had to buy special labels for it so we still needed to use up the bookplates that had already been purchased. They weren’t self adhesive either, that was new to the student as well.
I woke up the other morning to find my roommate rummaging around his bedroom while his car ran in the garage. With the garage door closed.
He didn’t seem to realize that 1) Filling a garage with exhaust is bad 2) especially when said garage is attached to my house 3) You really don’t need to warm up a car that’s been sitting in a garage all night.
Now, I don’t think he’d ever been able to park in a garage before (he’s a transient, apartment-dwelling type)…but surely he’s seen movies and tv shows where people kill themselves doing almost exactly as he was doing.
Days before the last presidential election Sarah Palin held a rally here. It was widely reported on as she has many admirers here. We were standing around at work waiting on the buzzer and one co-worker asked another if she was going to see Sarah Palin that night. She said “Who’s that?”
No joking around, she sincerely did not have any idea.
