Question first. Accept/Reject later.

In an exasperating attempt to banter playfully with me, Caspian brought up a conversation with one of his closest friends. He and this friend were discussing pop culture and pop media - which they agreed provide a surrogate for actual experience. Think about it.

Yesterday, I was jogging along on the treadmill listening to house dance music. I recalled Caspian's conversation as I listened to the lyrics, crooned by a strung-out-sounding female who had apparently waited all week to go club dancing, which I can safely assume she does weekly. She doesn't care who she dances with, where she dances, what music is playing - as long as she has a hot body next to hers, bright lights in her eyes and a dance floor under her feet.

The song is pretty awesome. But who really identifies with the message? I can certainly imagine it and have been known to have fun dancing around in a club, but I think the experience of listening to the song and imagining the scene and motivations it describes is a sufficient substitute for the actual experience. I digress.

As for pop media as a surrogate for experience, I could argue the same thing about ANY media, but pop culture is particularly vapid. Unlike Caspian and his buddy, I worry that the vast majority of pop culture consumers don't watch/listen to/read/submerge themselves in it with any academic intent. They're mindlessly sucked in, told how to act, what to experience, how to look, what to buy, etc. What came first - the urgings of pop culture, or the actual demand for the trappings of a pop culture lifestyle? Does pop culture lifestyle actually exist?

When it comes to pop-media unsavvyness, I think I rank somewhere near the middle/end of the unsavvy side. I don't avoid it for any particular reason other than that I prefer other pursuits to watching Glee and listening to Lady Gaga while contemplating the cohesiveness of my current outfit, my back-stabbing friends and the multiple plastic surgeries I'm planning. That was harsh and stereotypical, but the crap I see on cable TV makes me want to overgeneralize with cruel amusement.  See?!  I am reacting to pop media despite my best intentions!

Pop society should NOT be afforded the right to decide how I define happy and fulfilled.

The scope of this unsavvyness has been brought to my attention in bits and pieces, usually because I have nothing to talk about with my like-aged co-workers when we're not working. This is where my worries come from! Are they truly so mindless, these graduate-schooled, professional citizens?

Analyze it! Question it. And THEN accept it or reject it.