5 ms·
I kind of feel the opposite. I'm a music nerd and enjoy listening to records, but I never watch movies or TV. This is the most difficult barrier I have with int
by vortico 9y ago
I kind of feel the opposite. I'm a music nerd and enjoy listening to records, but I never watch movies or TV. This is the most difficult barrier I have with interacting with people at social events, because people talk about television instead of music. If anyone brings up a popular reference, I likely don't understand it and immediately have to drop out of the conversation. The best way to fix this is to watch just enough of popular TV (skip through movies in 15 minutes just to get the idea, watch the pilot episode of TV shows) while alone to make sure I know at least enough to keep up with friends. It's much easier for other people because they actually enjoy it.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- criddell 9y agoYou aren't interested in any television shows? Man, I have the exact opposite problem. There are so many things I want to watch that my to-watch list is getting longer and longer. Often I'm finding television more interesting than movies these days (my wife and I go to the cinema once a week).
- Crontab 9y agoI have to agree. When it comes to quality and quantity, it feels like we are in a golden age right now.
- vortico 9y agoNope. I'm very interested in the production of film and TV, but actually watching the result gives me an unexplainable anxiety. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- kaffeemitsahne 9y agoJust talk about other things lol. Watching TV just so you can understand pop culture references sounds pretty depressing.
- vortico 9y agoUnfortunately when meeting new people, you don't always have control of the conversation's direction. Once I know someone, they'll know I don't like talking about it, but having conversations with people I already know is the easy part of life.
- jackgolding 9y agoWhy not just go to local gigs to socialise? I've been going to gigs in Melbourne for 11 months now and its how I've met all of my friends here. At first I felt out of place that I didn't listen to Misfits growing up like many people here did but you will find there is always a band you can talk to someone about. A few years ago I took your approach with music, I'd listen to every new major label hip-hop/rap album on the day of release and guess what? No one I knew could talk about any of the albums in the detail I knew because they listen to whats on the radio or in the club - not saying that its a bad thing, but I think you are over-rating how much people care about "pop culture"
- varjag 9y agoI just read IMDB synapsis for the popular titles. It proves sufficient for keeping up with conversation or even engaging in a mild debate on show's merits.
- tehwebguy 9y agoThis is me but with sports.
- ams6110 9y agoI'm the same about sports, which I generally don't follow, but that often puts me at a serious disadvantage in group converstations, which (among men) seem to focus on sports pretty reliably.
- stock_toaster 9y agoInstead of wasting time watching something you aren't interested in, maybe just read a plot summary somewhere online?
- ntsplnkv2 9y agoOr just say "I've never seen that, what is it about?" There's no way you're going to know any reference, just ask, there you go you started a conversation.
- vortico 9y agoYou'll get weird looks if you haven't seen the common ones like Star Wars (especially in geek circles), The Matrix, Jurassic Park, the Batman movies, etc.
- ntsplnkv2 9y agoI haven't seen Star Wars, in fact, it's so fascinating to people it almost always starts a conversation. If people are not talking to you because you haven't seen star wars I hate to say they are either not worth your time or your breath smells bad!
- vortico 9y ago>it's so fascinating to people it almost always starts a conversation This is very true, but the outcome is usually negative and alienating to the subject of the discussion (me).
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- cylinder 9y agoAmericans talk about TV shows way too much ... it's not your fault.
- toomanybeersies 9y agoI don't think it's just an American thing. It's an easy way to find common ground for casual conversation. Same goes for sport, mention the latest $popular_sport_match and you're bound to find that at least a few people will have seen it, or heard enough about it to make conversation. For some sports it's even an international thing. I don't really follow rugby, but when I was recently in Fiji, I spent a fair bit of time talking about rugby and the Lions tour that was on at the time, because it was something that I could talk about with most British and South African people. Obviously, you can't go to another country and talk about the Red Sox, but for international sports, it's a great conversation starter. Same goes for things TV shows like Game of Thrones, everyone watches GoT. It's the same with the weather, it's an absolutely banal topic, but it's a common ground, we are all experiencing the weather.
- EADGBE 9y agoFWIW, American Baseball has a huge following in Korea and Japan, as well as most of South America. You probably could go and talk about the Red Sox or Yankees and have a conversation with someone about it. >Same goes for things TV shows like Game of Thrones, everyone watches GoT. Kinda like only Americans follow baseball?
- y04nn 9y agoI don't watch TV series, but to understand what it is about, when I hear about a popular one I check the Wikipedia page, it usually contains all the information I need to know.