Probably as a comeback to a sly remark from another family member on the lack of depth of conversation at a recent family event, I very ‘kindly’ emailed a brief summary of recent hot spots of mainstream popular culture to my (undoubtedly bemused) uncle in Belgium. I briefed him through Glee, Twilight and the uses of asterix to indicate actions within texts, emails, etc and promised him a Twitter tutorial upon our next meeting in the summer. He's yet to reply to thank me profusely. My tongue was obviously placed in my cheek but it did make me think about why pop culture can be important as a social tool. Obviously I appreciate that individuality is a thing to be encouraged and celebrated, but it’s also important to reach out to other people and find common ground, to communicate – popular culture is an obvious way of doing this.
While I have had my neuroses earlier in the year of dragging my cultural intake out of the shallow end (still plodding on, managed to make it through Question Time AND a couple of Newsnights last week without swearing out loud at the slimy politicians = all time first), it struck me that the snobs in this world, and you are snobs wherever you are – let’s not try and dress this up, were actually doing themselves a disservice by proudly insisting on remaining ignorant on such matters. Fine, you may not want to lower yourself to the realms of X Factor, Glee and suchlike but A LOT of people, quite probably people you interact with every day ARE interested in watching programmes like this for various reasons – would it not hurt to watch just the one show or pop on Facebook so you know enough to hold a conversation on the subject?
Noone’s asking you to enjoy it but even if the morbid fascination on what on earth it is that is compelling people to watch these shows (there aren’t any subliminal messages, I’m pretty certain of this before you suggest it) doesn’t get the better of you, isolating yourself socially as well as culturally by refusing to have any interest in pop culture whatsoever is a position I’m afraid I look down on with disdain, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage by remaining ignorant. Now there’s a delicious irony for you.
