I've Lost a Step

There's a moment we reach at some point when we realize that we aren't as sharp as we used to be, we don't do what we're best at quite as well anymore. For many who play a young man's game (like sports or entertainment), it happens at some point in your 30s. You realize you've lost a step, you're not as quick as you used to be.

I'm about to turn 31, and I've lost a step. So to speak.

I've kinda made the focus of my life's work to follow popular culture. First it was for the purposes of show prep when I was on the radio as a DJ, then when I started this blog in its original form 9 years ago. More recently, I've become a media scholar, which really means you have to follow what's hot and have a sense of what is going on so you can apply the obligatory theories and worldview to these trends and events. As someone who for the last two decades has been in that prime target market for pushing new pop culture trends, I liked that I could spot the new things before anyone else. I could catch bands that were under the radar before they got huge, I heard about websites and other trendy things before it became part of the vernacular.

So it kinda took me back a little when I recently saw all my friends from SU making various "fail" and "win" references on Facebook and I had NO FRIGGIN' CLUE what they were talking about. Turns out, it's about FailBlog, the blog that points out all the various goof-ups, "epic" or otherwise, that happen in everyday life. Then I found out about "Stuff White People Like" by seeing it on a T-shirt someone was wearing on a train. And I find myself asking myself, "How did I not know about this sooner?" FML!

Oh, that. Yeah, I knew about FML over a year ago, and now everybody is saying that. So I have one out of three. But I used to be better than that!

Now don't get me wrong, there are some things in pop culture that I see and frankly I'd rather not know more about them... because they're stupid. Like how I see all these people around Philadelphia wearing hats and shirts that only have the "ill" part of the "Phillies" script logo. I swear the first time I saw that, I wanted to ask the guy, "So where are your two friends with the shirts that say 'Ph' and 'ies'?" But I'd really like to not be coming late to the party on so many things. Like TV shows. I was late on "Mad Men", "Scrubs", and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", and aside from the time it takes to get caught up on these shows, it's just aggravating in general.

And the other thing that comes with the realization that you have lost a step is the realization that this will only get worse as you get older. It won't be long before I am out of the prized 18-34 demographic and in some respects, it really doesn't go that old anyway. I mean, really, when they come up with shows like "Glee" and "Vampire Diaries", do you think they're targeting that to all the 18-34s? No, more like 18-25. So I'm either seeing new shows I have no interest in but might have when I was younger, or shows I take an interest in but I should be "too old" to do so.

I'm about to become a college professor, and I really fear coming off as the professor who tries too hard to be "down" with his students on what's new and what's hot. Incidentally, do young people still use the word "down"? See, this is what I'm talking about! I want to know this stuff so I can at least be relatable to my students, who aren't THAT much younger than I am... at least for now they're not. And beyond that, I like looking for new music from up-and-coming bands. I don't ever want to feel like I'm too old to like a band of 20-somethings who put out something I really like. At least when I was in radio, I had the "Peter Pan" syndrome and I wasn't gonna grow old. Not avoidable when you're an academic. So for those of you considering grad school to study the media like I do, there's one more reason for you not to go. That and the thousands of dollars in loans you'll have to borrow.

At least I still have my youthful good looks...