I've been in my career for just over ten years now and I seem to spend a lot of time reflecting on the person I was back then and who I am now. One thing that I find very interesting is how much different my take on pop culture is now as opposed to how it was ten years ago.
People's view points change as they get older, that is pretty much a fact. Ten years ago I used to work for Hastings Books, Music and Video on the side while I was finishing my clinical internship in Spokane. You could pretty much say that I was pretty immersed in all things pop culture back then. I listened to the music that was cool back then, I watched all the movies that were cool and I still watched a lot of mainstream television. These days I don't even watch television anymore and am lucky if I see more than 5 movies in the theater a year or even rent DVDs. A lot of things have changed in ten years, digital music is now the mainstay of music sales and I buy over 90% of my music off iTunes. Television is now dominated by the phenomenon known as "Reality Television". Words cannot even begin to describe the level of disdain I have for reality television. I could spend an entire blog on just how bad and fake I feel it is and how it's having a negative effect on the American culture as a whole, but I'm just going to leave it at that for now. "Celebrity as Celebrity does" is also supersaturating the entertainment media anymore with far too many people being famous just for being famous, not because they are talented or accomplished in any way shape or form. People actually worship these "Celebrities", hell the entire "E" channel is devoted to nothing but these people and reality television and it really disgusts me.
I really have become disillusioned with pop culture and I have grown up in many ways. I refuse to have my tastes dictated to me largre corporations who prepackage everything from television to music and then tell the American public that they aren't cool if they don't like whatever crap they are selling that particular week. I prefer to go my own way, form my own opinions and place my devotion to things that I feel mean something or are trying to make a difference in the world somehow. All of the above really does feel very negative in nature but it's genuinely how I feel about it and I have decided that the best way for me to stay positive about things is to pretty much unplug as much as possible.
One thing that I am rather happy about is the fact that geek culture is flourishing in this day and age and that it's finally far more socially acceptable to be a geek or nerd. I have to admit that I'm an old school geek/nerd, whatever you want to call it. It just amazes me how much geek culture has gained foothold in mainstream society now. Movies that I thought were awesome back in the 80's are finally getting their due in society. It's no longer considered to be uncouth to be a fan of things like the X-Men or Spiderman. Video games are more popular than ever and show no signs of declining anytime soon.
So while on the one hand, I feel that pop culture has gotten way too out of hand but at the same time I love the fact that geek culture is finally starting to take the stage. I plan on continuing to follow those things that genuinely hold my interest, not because it's cool to do so. I strongly encourage everyone else to look at things in similar fashion and possibly turn a critical eye to the group mentality and show more initiative by going your own way!
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