Last night I had occasion to speak with one of my oot cousin. He was calling to give the bris information for his new grandson, a bris that will be in NY. We spent a few moments just catching up on what was going on in our lives. Somehow the subject of the younger generations among us came up and yes, we bemoaned about some of what we are seeing.
I mentioned that there was a cultural literacy gap that was widening every day. In class I happened to use the phrase "You're not in Kansas anymore" about a phenomenon a student was describing. There were blank looks on all but one face in the class. Someone even volunteered that that particular student was from Queens, not Kansas. My cousin said that he, too, had used that phrase in a business meeting and only those above a certain age had caught the referent. It got us to wondering about just how many of the cultural referents we grew up with are now unknown to the younger generations. It seems like the different generations are speaking different languages, and meaning sometimes gets muddled. Laughingly my cousin said that there was a good reason for this sometimes disconnect--"It's because we aren't in Kansas anymore!" Yup, and I feel like I've definitely fallen down that rabbit hole.
14 comments:
Not to make you more depressed, but it's only getting worse, as cultural "generations" are get shorter and shorter. I'd bet that many people under 25 would think that your "rabbit hole" line was a reference to "The Matrix."
My favorite experience with this phenomenon so far came from a just-out-of-college colleague who gave me a blank stare after I made some Saturday Night Live reference. After I told her the source, she compounded the error a thousandfold by exclaiming "oh! I love the classic SNLs - like when Will Ferrell was on!" Grrr...
I actually gave a presentation at my alma mater a couple of years back to a group of students on this very issue: workplaces now can have four distinct generations of employees, and resolving the different modes of communication and expectations amongst them is one of the most challenging tasks of a manager. The language is very much different, even across a relatively small age difference. I'm 35, and I think cell phones are for making phone calls, "friend" is a noun, and script is legible. People 10 years younger than I have an entirely different cultural framework.
Now, there's still some hope: I know teenagers who can quote Tom Lehrer and Allan Sherman lyrics with the best of 'em, and online media archives means that I can infect friends and foes with classic Bill Cosby and George Carlin routines.
Ef Ex: Good to know I'm not the only one. I was at a conference where the presenters were doing a point/counterpoint. When things got a little heated, to break the tension one of them said with a straight face "Jane, you ignorant sl*t." Half of the room (the over 40 half, me included) was rolling and the other half was clueless.
I would never have imagined!
Classic movies?!?
Sigh......
Bring on the Ensure....
Then, the question is it Lewis Carroll's rabbit hole, or Grace Slicks? ;-) Depends not only on generations; but on sub-culture, as well.
We were at a restaurant and I was trying to get a dish special ordered for me and the waiter wasn't being very cooperative. I muttered under my breath 'I'll have a chicken salad sandwich. Hold the chicken salad.' One of my kids was really puzzled. He said 'ma this place is milchig. You can't get chicken salad.' I told him that it wasn't my line, it was Jack Nicholson's line. And then I had to explain who Jack Nicholson was. It's a whole new world and whole parts of it don't understand each other.
Yes G6, classic movies, at least for us.
i went back to school and spent a few years with classmates 10 years younger than me. one day we were studying for an exam and making up mnemonics and someone used a mnemonic from a rock group. i asked for an explanation and he responded, "oh that was after your time."
Wish it was only the cultural references that have to be explained. I used the Kansas line to my hubby when my 5 year old was around and his question was 'What's a kansas?" Geography anyone?!
ZISSY:
i think you can fogive a 5-year-old for not havng heard of kansas
Lion,
Agree that I'd probably forgive that 5 year old for not knowing what Kansas was, but I wish that it was only 5 year olds with the problem.
I was once teaching an American History class to juniors in high school. I gave them a list of 100 place names. 50 were the names of state capitals and 50 were the names of the states. I asked them to identify the states. You think I got 100% correct answers from everyone? Or as one student put it to me, complaining about the exercise "Why do I hafta know about places I'm never gonna go to?!"
It's not age, but it is a generational thing in that it was "OK" for previous generations to be more up on the culture. You could still be "frum" or "Orthodox" and have seen or read the Wizard of Oz. Nowadays, there are larger and larger numbers who believe that it is impossible to be frum or Orthodox and be up on popular culture.
It's a sad state of affairs.
Also, I blame the parents. I'm up to date with today's culture. I may not like to text "yes" to a friend as I prefer to talk on the phone, but I get it. But, if kids are never ignorant to older culture, it's the parents' fault for not exposing them to it. My parents shared classic SNL routines, Mel Brooks, Henny Youngman, Jack Benny, 50's and 60's music, etc with us as we grew up. We were also encouraged to read books and magazines and watch "older" movies. To this day some of my favorites come from an era long before I was born, or even my parents were born. My wife was raised similarly and one of our hobbies is renting old movies (yes, all our friends think we're weird).
JS: be fair - your friends think that you're weird for reasons far more legitimate than your love of old movies... :)
(yes, I know..."hello, kettle? This is the pot. I'd like to talk to you about your color..." :) )
lol. Very true. The movie thing is just the tip of the iceberg. :)
Wow. I'm only in my mid-20's, and I know the Kansas reference (and use it all the time). The rabbit hole, too. But I agree with what JS said above, that especially in frum circles the younger generations don't know the cultural references because it's no longer "ok" to know such things.
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