Do people pretend not to know who people are in order to seem intelligent?

[coulditbeme2323]

Do people pretend not to know who people are in order to seem intelligent?

This question is prompted from reading comments online re The Met Gala?

Now let me prefix this by saying I have no interest in reality tv, Showbiz mags, etc - but surely there are some people who you know who they are because everybody does!

There were people saying "who" on a photo of Kim Kardashian. I have never seen an episode of the show, have no interest in her, but of course I know who she is - because how can you not?

Another British example is Jordan/Kate Price. No interest in her, but she has literally been headline news in The UK for 20 years. If you live in The UK - surely its impossible to not at least know who she is?

I think people who write "who?" are making the point that they’re irritated at the expectation that everyone will know who these celebrities are and why they are thought to be interesting.

I don't know much about celebrity culture, and often think "Who?" when I read a headline online or a thread title on here, but I don't click on them and certainly wouldn't think to comment as I have zero interest. I think it's a kind of "I'm far too cool and serious to know who these people are, and I want others to know that" attitude.

I genuinely don't know who a lot of the modern celebs are, simply because I don't engage with most modern media beyond about the mid 90s, but I don't think that makes me cooler, or smarter or better than anyone who does - I just have different interests. I do know who Kim Kardashian is though hard not to!

Katie Price has had many articles in the Times, and is mentioned fairly frequently. Almost as if the Times assumes their readers know who she is. She's spoken on radio 4 multiple times and has even hosted.

Why does your dh enjoy not knowing who singers are? Seems a bit odd to get an ego boost because you don't know about music?

I’m not a big fan of celebrity culture. A lot of it weirds me out. There are plenty of famous people I recognise however. Especially those that have an actual talent or career - musicians, actors etc. I have to say I would not have a clue which Kardashian was which if you showed me a picture. People who are famous simply for being infamous are not something that interest me.

On a Met Gala article? No ones expecting you to be interested in celeb culture, but they do if your reading about the met gala

I don’t know what those two look like but I know their names. Not everyone is very interested in that sort of information. I’m sure there are things I know about that you barely bother with. I don’t see how it shows how high our IQs are?

He knows a lot about music - classical music. He listens a lot to Radio 3. He assumed she was a singer of the type of music he’s not interested in and doesn’t listen to.

I recognise the names but unless they've done something other than be in the media all dressed up then I've no interest in anything about them.

Why would they be reading an article about them though?
If it irritates them that much.

And nobody is asking you to have interest, that wasn't the point of this post.

Why on earth do they even open the thread then?!

I have no clue who love islanders are I don't watch reality tv but I wouldn't comment on a post anywhere saying "who" especially if they are at some red carpet thing.

It drives me insane. It's so deliberately obtuse. Commenting "who" on an article about a specific person, who's name will be scattered throughout said article is the most irritating thing in the universe. You know who, if you don't it's written in the text and if they're of no interest to you, scroll past

I don’t watch football, I do know who David Beckham is, but I couldn’t necessarily pick him out of a lineup. I could if he had his arm around victoria beckham. But I’m just really really bad with faces, and his face isn’t that memorable.

Exactly! Why even open the thread if it's about something/someone you have never heard of/have no interest in. And why comment just to say 'I have never heard of them and have no interest in them?'

I don't go to any boards (for example) that are for the childfree, and start going on about my children, or a website dedicated to dogs, going on about how much better cats are. OR to a sports board (say about football,) letting everyone know I have no interest in it, and have never heard of certain footballers that people are talking about.....

Why come on to the thread if you have no interest? Makes zero sense, and yes, it does smack of superiority (from some, not all) because some people feel the need to let everyone know how they have never heard of Kim Kardsahian, Katie Price, MAFS, Love Island, Olivia Rodrigo, or Sabrina Carpenter! (Or even if they have, they really don't care about them!)

.

Unless you’re staggeringly insular, of course you know who Kim K is. She’s been profiled in The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, all the tabloids, the national news, Radio 4, Radio 2 and Radio 1 (and all the other radio stations as far as I know) there was a spread on her in the Sunday Times Business section 2 weeks ago. It’s not a case of “I’m just not interested in celeb news” because she’s not only in celeb news, she’s in all the news.
Saying you know what the Met Gala is but not who Kim K is…. Come on now. The Kardashians have been the Met Gala for about 5 years.
It is 100% nonsense and a very weird pseudo class marker to pretend not to know who these people are and there’s absolutely NO possibility of someone being on social media, getting fed a Kardashian article by the algo and then actually not knowing who she is enough to comment “who”. If you’re on SM then you know.

Agree totally! I will sometimes hear a name eg Taylor Swift gets mentioned as a song writer, but until that big tour I didn't know it's a woman! Not something I would want to read about etc., when I confessed to this iniquitous social crime on this site one response was 'But you must have seen posters', er know, not in deepest East Anglia!
Strangely though if I question why people have never heard of someone I know from an interest of mine then I'm 'showing off'! No, just different interests.

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Aren't those 'Who?' comments ironic, like saying 'couldn't care less' ...but to post those comments defeats the purpose?

But, had I seen that profile, I would have designated it as 'Not of interest' and kept reading something else. Same as I do for the sports pages.

People spend their lives showing off in all sorts of weird ways; often when I think someone is behaving strangely and I try to figure out what their point is, I end up thinking: 'Aha! That is a person who is showing off in a way I don't recognise'.

I didn't know who Jordan is, so I just googled Jordan, and got shoes, the Middle Eastern country, and then Michael Jordan. When I googled Met Gala Jordan (as my unusually enormous intelligence told me this thread was about the Met Gala), I got articles about someone with male pronouns named Jordan Roth. I couldn't easily figure out what this person does, and was too bored to look further.

I don't post on social media, and wouldn't ask 'who?' because I would know that was obnoxious.

People who write ‘who’ in comment sections drive me insane! I think that’s one of the aims of the commenter tbh, to irritate other readers.

But the main aim of writing ‘who’ is to put down and discredit the individual about whom the article is written. In many cases I think the commenter knows EXACTLY who the person is but by asking ‘who’ they’re just giving their opinion,’ which is that this person is little heard of, unimportant, over-rated and of little consequence.

Likewise

Without googling, do you know what Katherine Johnson did, one of the women an amazing film was made about? Just because a profile is in the media doesn't mean everyone reads it or listens to it! That's not feigning any kind of superiority, it's just the truth.