I don’t know who anyone is, anymore

[Nobiggerthanyourhand]

Does anybody else not understand popular culture?

I do a bit of MN and I look at the Daily Mail online (please stay with me), and sometimes I watch programmes like Strictly and Masterchef and … I don’t know who any one is.

Molly-Mae
Tommy Fury
Zara McDermott
Sam
Pete from strictly with the tattoos
someone called Maud who he might have been in a relationship with

What can I do to understand this better? How do these people become so important?

I never thought I'd end up like this (like my mum) but I think I'm worse. At least she used to know who people were from TV etc, but I just tend to watch series at the weekend. Never watch any reality TV.
My music tends to be less mainstream. My dc are into gaming and makeup, so I get nothing from them.
I think people think I'm being a snob when I have no idea what they're talking about. But other than this, I spend my scrolling time reading about various periods of history, artists and writers and science. I wish I could care, so I could join in conversations, but I can't.

I definitely don’t want to drink bubble tea

They are mostly people who are encouraged by their agents to tip the Daily Mail off when they are going somewhere

Famous for being famous

Totally normal, happens to everyone. It was about ten years ago (I'm 47 now) when I started seeing adverts for artists playing Wembley who I had literally never heard of and just I accepted that I was there now

I have never known who soap actors, sports people or reality TV are either.

With internet and social media, I think that effect has been speeded up as different demograpics/interest groups pretty much have their own bubble - not like when I was growing up and everyone read the papers and watched TOTP and so on, it's just evolution really.

barbarahunter
I would carry on as you are and not bother.

… but I don’t want to be ignorant @barbarahunter

I'd rather be ignorant about these "celebrities" than other important things in life.

I did like Pete, I wasn’t dissing him but as a PP says it can be hard to understand how someone gets famous for being famous. I understand influencers and youtubers, like Joe Sugg, but I’ve never watched things like TOWIE or really got what they are. I’m old enough that I instinctively expect people to have some kind of skill or trade, eg athlete, radio host, boy band member I can get my head round more easily.

@frozendaisy

i think thats a good point about knowing what your children are influenced by.
But in the days of mass media and multiple TV platforms you just can't keep up with everything.
So my 20 year non tv watching son, is into sport. I know a heck of a lot about the mathematics of the Premier League, I know which US basketball team he follows even though I've never watched a match, and I know more about Formula 1 than I care to admit.
I know the names of the YouTubers my foster son follows and I'm learning more than I want to about Pokemon.
But I don't have headspace for celebrity love island desert island survival bake off or whatever it is
Before I left work last year I had fascinating conversations with younger colleagues about the latest celebrities, there was lots of mutual eye rolling and I would express my astonishment when they said they didn't know who the Beatles or David Bowie was. It was fine, it didn't matter that none of us really knew what the other was talking about, we had a laugh, we would all learn something from it, but it didn't have to assume any more Importance than that

They aren't anyone. Just ignore them. Don't watch shows about them or read DM articles about them. There's plenty of other tabloid fodder you must at least recognise enough to have an opinion on.

I’ve just read the colour supplement to the paper. It’s full of articles about people I have never heard of and have no interest in. Why would anyone care about the lives of these people is what I ask myself.

Blimey I've got it all muddled I thought Pete wicks was the Covid fitness fella.

You're really not missing much. There's worse things to be ignorant about!

That's Joe!!!

They're certainly not important and you're certainly not ignorant not knowing who they are. Most people, in reality, (pun intended! 😂 ) neither know or care who they are.

I'm 30 and I'm already past the point of knowing lol. They're usually talentless and boring anyway, I wouldn't worry about it. Keep listening to new music and seeing movies and you can find new people that way.

I don't have a television, I don't read tabloids, I don't use Twitter or Instagram. It all passes me by, it is a very good way to live.

Fortunately my friends and family have a lot of actual real things to chat about.

Love Island, TOWIE and Made in Chelsea covers it basically. Once they drop out/finish doing those shows they often get on the reality tv/game show circuit and you see the same people over and over doing this game show or that reality tv show.

I definitely don’t want to drink bubble tea
It's horrible. One of the young people I support convinced me to try it when we were in the mall a few weeks ago. It was disgusting!

I know what "sigma" is and I'm over 70, so you've absolutely made my day @Nobiggerthanyourhand

Didn't Pete Wicks have a veg stall in EastEnders?? If these people had done anything vaguely noteworthy you'd remember them. Look at all the space you've freed up in your life for interesting stuff by not knowing who they are!

Basically an old fashioned alpha male

Im similar to you op

Celebrities pass me by these days

@notprincehamlet

The old Pete Wickes was indeed a proper east end geezer on a market stall
The new Pete Wickes appears to be a glossy tv reality 'star'

I am far from being ignorant but I don't have clue who these people are and don't want to know.

Ignorent - lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticatedd_.

Not knowing who the latest loser off Love Island is does not make you ignorant or ill-informed.

What a sad, pointless, vacuous existence.

Still, if they are happy...😂