Also the internet throws a lot of our traditional understandings of culture out the window. A 20 year old and a 40 year old might not have had as much reason to hang out before (although things like sports and hobbies did pull age groups together some) but now they’re all playing against each other in the new Call of Duty, sharing memes about Among Us, laughing about how they’re too old for the Skibidi Toilet and arguing on Twitter.com
There’s lots of injokes and references and slang that I don’t understand not because of my age, but because I don’t watch Streamer X or play Y game or have Z streaming service. And yet plenty of people younger, my age, and older will get those references because they do. Meanwhile the opposite is true, I’ve played some online games from my childhood with kids who weren’t even alive when the game came out! It was kinda shocking really.
My hypothesis is that there’s only school-work-retirement as actual generational/cultural boundaries. People in school have different memes because they all see each other every single day for hours at a time, people who work for a living have different memes because they struggle to find time to see each other in person, and retired people have different memes because they’re bored.
injokes and references and slang that I don’t understand not because of my age, but because I don’t watch Streamer X or play Y game or have Z streaming service
Very accurate. I work in a very young office where most of the employees are in their early to mid 20s. We’re generally all nerds to some degree, so we play a lot of the same games and see a lot of the same movies, but my biggest knowledge gap is around whatever is trending on TikTok and whatever happening is going on with some streamer or youtuber. But on the other hand, I watch some things targeted for their demo that they haven’t seen.
Like most memes though, it’s related to what content you’ve consumed. I haven’t played Baldur’s Gate 3 yet, but most people at my work have. They joke about it and I’m just the dude standing in the corner at the party thinking “They don’t know I optimized my science lab loop in Factorio.”
A 20 year old and a 40 year old might not have had as much reason to hang out before
Eh, I feel like this ain’t quite the case if you’ve worked in the service industry. You got a lot of 30 year old shift managers shooting the shit with 20 year old cashiers while closing shop up. Seriously me and the 19 year old punk I work with have been doing our own Cum Town bits while mopping the floors for months no.
Also the internet throws a lot of our traditional understandings of culture out the window. A 20 year old and a 40 year old might not have had as much reason to hang out before (although things like sports and hobbies did pull age groups together some) but now they’re all playing against each other in the new Call of Duty, sharing memes about Among Us, laughing about how they’re too old for the Skibidi Toilet and arguing on Twitter.com
There’s lots of injokes and references and slang that I don’t understand not because of my age, but because I don’t watch Streamer X or play Y game or have Z streaming service. And yet plenty of people younger, my age, and older will get those references because they do. Meanwhile the opposite is true, I’ve played some online games from my childhood with kids who weren’t even alive when the game came out! It was kinda shocking really.
My hypothesis is that there’s only school-work-retirement as actual generational/cultural boundaries. People in school have different memes because they all see each other every single day for hours at a time, people who work for a living have different memes because they struggle to find time to see each other in person, and retired people have different memes because they’re bored.
Very accurate. I work in a very young office where most of the employees are in their early to mid 20s. We’re generally all nerds to some degree, so we play a lot of the same games and see a lot of the same movies, but my biggest knowledge gap is around whatever is trending on TikTok and whatever happening is going on with some streamer or youtuber. But on the other hand, I watch some things targeted for their demo that they haven’t seen.
Like most memes though, it’s related to what content you’ve consumed. I haven’t played Baldur’s Gate 3 yet, but most people at my work have. They joke about it and I’m just the dude standing in the corner at the party thinking “They don’t know I optimized my science lab loop in Factorio.”
Eh, I feel like this ain’t quite the case if you’ve worked in the service industry. You got a lot of 30 year old shift managers shooting the shit with 20 year old cashiers while closing shop up. Seriously me and the 19 year old punk I work with have been doing our own Cum Town bits while mopping the floors for months no.