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When Did You Stop Watching? (1 Viewer)

rockaction

rockaction

Footballguy
Some of us have had our fill of American popular culture. Grandiose in attempt, such a failure in execution -- to some. So did/when did you you drop out, per se? I'm talking mainstream culture, too, not any sub or contra genres of such. Most of us on this board have a least tuned out a little from the networks, at least, or even the cable shows that are talked about must-see TV (I'm thinking Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones). So when did you stop watching and tune out? Did you stop? Are you happier to have stopped or not?

Just curious.

 
I am not really sure what you are asking.  Are you asking if people still watch network/cable TV? Reality TV?  ??????

 
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Always enjoyed being in, always been able to do without. Didn't have cable from '96-'11, didnt get online til '03 when a relative gave me a laptop, went offline my first 3 yrs in Vt here '13-16, have never had a smartphone. OK Boomer.

I do know that part of my hippie legacy will keep me from fully respecting any gen which does not have a significant dropout/luddite movement. We've never needed one more than now

 
Is there even a true popular culture anymore? Isn’t it all niche now except for superhero movies and the occasional Bruno Mars, Pharrell song. 

 
Gally said:
I am not really sure what you are asking.  Are you asking if people still watch network/cable TV? Reality TV?  ??????
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Pretty much when you stopped tuning into the zeitgeist. That is, when you started missing easy questions on Jeopardy about pop culture that everybody knows.

 
 I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!

 
rockaction said:
Pretty much when you stopped tuning into the zeitgeist. That is, when you started missing easy questions on Jeopardy about pop culture that everybody knows.
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I'm not quite this far yet, but since I checked out over the last 5-10 years I am certainly less aware than I used to be. And should be a full blown dinosaur sometime this decade.

Sports and news - and...that's about it.

 
rockaction said:
Some of us have had our fill of American popular culture. Grandiose in attempt, such a failure in execution -- to some. So did/when did you you drop out, per se? I'm talking mainstream culture, too, not any sub or contra genres of such. Most of us on this board have a least tuned out a little from the networks, at least, or even the cable shows that are talked about must-see TV (I'm thinking Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones). So when did you stop watching and tune out? Did you stop? Are you happier to have stopped or not?

Just curious.
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You're crazy man. I crush hours and hours of abc, cbs, nbc. I even find time to gorge myself on PBS reruns of this old House and that stupid British crap some stoner decided to schedule.

Cable doesn't exist in my world. ESPN, never heard of it. Breaking Bad, is that a movie? If they put it on CBS I will watch the #### out of it while I stroke my rescue cat.

I heard about this innernet thing but not interested. I got so many options already, what a waste of money. My #### is free. Who pays money for free ####? Not this guy.

And, if I miss something I just record it with my VCR. Doesn't get any better that

 
wikkidpissah said:
Always enjoyed being in, always been able to do without. Didn't have cable from '96-'11, didnt get online til '03 when a relative gave me a laptop, went offline my first 3 yrs in Vt here '13-16, have never had a smartphone. OK Boomer.

I do know that part of my hippie legacy will keep me from fully respecting any gen which does not have a significant dropout/luddite movement. We've never needed one more than now
Click to expand...
We've got a participatory generation at hand here. In everything. They participate, however fragmented they may be. 

 
rockaction said:
Some of us have had our fill of American popular culture. Grandiose in attempt, such a failure in execution -- to some. So did/when did you you drop out, per se? I'm talking mainstream culture, too, not any sub or contra genres of such. Most of us on this board have a least tuned out a little from the networks, at least, or even the cable shows that are talked about must-see TV (I'm thinking Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones). So when did you stop watching and tune out? Did you stop? Are you happier to have stopped or not?

Just curious.
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The fact that I have never seen a single episode of any of the shows you mentioned makes me wonder if I was ever "in"?

 
DallasDMac said:
The fact that I have never seen a single episode of any of the shows you mentioned makes me wonder if I was ever "in"?
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Good question. Like ilov80s points out, there may never been a when to be "in" to begin -- since cable anyway. Also, it's a question of fragmentation of pop culture and who consumes and when.

 
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Ilov80s said:
Is there even a true popular culture anymore? Isn’t it all niche now except for superhero movies and the occasional Bruno Mars, Pharrell song. 
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This is a good point. About when, do you think, everything stopped to be able to qualify as "in?"

And could "in" be the platform or channel one is watching or tuning in to?

 
rockaction said:
This is a good point. About when, do you think, everything stopped to be able to qualify as "in?"

And could "in" be the platform or channel one is watching or tuning in to?
Click to expand...
Good question- not too sure. It's happened slowly and at different paces depending on the art form. Game of Thrones felt like a major titan falling. Is there anything left on TV that qualifies? I suppose sports could count, it so, that is the biggest remaining mass piece of culture that so many cling to and can identify with. 

 
Ilov80s said:
Is there even a true popular culture anymore? Isn’t it all niche now except for superhero movies and the occasional Bruno Mars, Pharrell song. 
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Basically anything Disney. 

Except the things (SW) they ruin. 

 
Dan Lambskin said:
 I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!
Click to expand...
not me man, I'm gonna keep rockin forever.

 
Eephus said:
There's no monoculture anymore
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I like the whole destroy the premise to achieve soundness thing.

What do you think has taken its place and what are the ramifications for this stratification? Cultural discord? Unrest? Or will things essentially stay the same? 

Roughly, what is there to be lost, or is it just a fact with pros and cons?

 
I haven’t kept up with the “in” TV shows in many years.  I never watched Breaking Bad or game of thrones.  At some point, TV got boring and I didn’t care to watch much.   The prime time TV shows became more annoying and slow than anything else.  I watch bits and pieces of NFL games every week and watch bits and pieces of NCAA basketball throughout the week at this time of year.   

 
New boy in the neighborhood 
Lives downstairs and it's understood. 
He's there just to take good care of me, 
Like he's one of the family. 

Charles in Charge 
Of our days and our nights 
Charles in Charge 
Of our wrongs and our rights 

And I sing, I want, 
I want Charles in Charge of me. 

Charles in Charge 
Of our days and our nights 
Charles in Charge 
Of our wrongs and our rights 

And I sing, I want, 
I want Charles in Charge of me.

 
rockaction said:
I like the whole destroy the premise to achieve soundness thing.

What do you think has taken its place and what are the ramifications for this stratification? Cultural discord? Unrest? Or will things essentially stay the same? 

Roughly, what is there to be lost, or is it just a fact with pros and cons?
Click to expand...
Cable TV chipped away in the 80s and 90s and the Internet performed the finishing move in the last decade.  The MASH finale had over 100M viewers in 1983.  That was down 20% when Cheers went off the air ten years later.  The Friends finale in 2004 only had half the eyeballs as MASH--still massive numbers but nowhere near when people only had three networks to choose from.  Music has seen similar fragmentation and declines.

Movies are a little different but I'd argue that fanboy cults don't represent a monoculture no matter how much money they generate.  The Super Bowl is probably the closest we come nowadays but it's an event rather than a piece of popular culture.

 
As any classic child of the 80’s and 90’s I was raised on TV.  I’m lucky enough genetically to not have inherited the addiction gene so I have none to speak of, but TV is probably the closest thing to an addiction for me.  That probably keeps me from ever fully “dropping out”.  With that said I’ve despised the reality TV thing since it’s inception, I truly feel like it and social media inspire the absolute worst of our qualities. So being largely disconnected from those 2 major aspects of popular culture I don’t really feel like I’m a part of the “mainstream” or have for a long time.  

 
rockaction said:
Gally said:
I am not really sure what you are asking.  Are you asking if people still watch network/cable TV? Reality TV?  ??????
Click to expand...
Pretty much when you stopped tuning into the zeitgeist. That is, when you started missing easy questions on Jeopardy about pop culture that everybody knows.
Click to expand...
So the question is really "when did you first notice you were getting older?"

 
Ilov80s said:
Yeah, Disney has a stranglehold on popular culture which I guess really just amounts to stuff for kids 
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🤨🤯 Most adults I know either love the parks, marvel, baby Yoda, frozen, or all of the above. 

It's crazy to me how many otherwise normal people go spend big money at DW every damn year. 

 
Dan Lambskin said:
 I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!
Click to expand...
thanks grandpa Simpson.  :)

 
Cold Dead Hands said:
New boy in the neighborhood 
Lives downstairs and it's understood. 
He's there just to take good care of me, 
Like he's one of the family. 
And I sing, I want, 
I want Charles in Charge of me.
Click to expand...
Hoo boy. Not even sure how to respond to a Scott Baio/Willie Aimes- themed Nicole Eggert at sixteen fest. 

 
Television is better than ever.  And it's worse than ever.  We are no longer in the 70's or 80's when people watched 3 or 4 channels and a show had to appeal to a large cross section of the population.  There is more quality television now in an individual year than in all of pre-1990 television combined.  And then we have people watching The Bachelor, Survivor, and the Kardashians.

 
Don Hutson said:
Television is better than ever.  And it's worse than ever.  We are no longer in the 70's or 80's when people watched 3 or 4 channels and a show had to appeal to a large cross section of the population.  There is more quality television now in an individual year than in all of pre-1990 television combined.  And then we have people watching The Bachelor, Survivor, and the Kardashians.
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Interesting take. I guess it goes back to the monoculture. Rather than turning off because the programming is worse, we're turning to actually better and worse programming because of our interests. So goes the cultural reference points, then, it seems. 

I think I read something recently -- maybe it was wikkid -- that said the glowing screens united us once God was dead and there were no longer European enemies (I'm adding this) to have to come to grips with. It sure seemed like a sad thought; that there were no cultural touchstones, but rather a thousand atoms screaming for a nucleus. I wonder if this applies. I wonder if anything so broad-based could hold our attention without demographic pandering. 

 
I tuned out of TV when it went all-in on reality shows and serial dramas. I'll still binge on a good show but I have a pretty low tolerance level for bad dialogue.

I tuned out of the movies when CGI and superheroes took over.

 
-OZ- said:
🤨🤯 Most adults I know either love the parks, marvel, baby Yoda, frozen, or all of the above. 

It's crazy to me how many otherwise normal people go spend big money at DW every damn year. 
Click to expand...
That’s another issue I have. It’s crazy how many adults took the Toys R Us slogan to heart: “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys R Us Kid”. That company died but the mantra did not.  I work closely with several very nice women but they spend any vacation chance they get going to Disney and binge watch Disney plus and hang out with their nieces, neighbors daughters, etc who are all like 8 years old because they share the same tastes in movies. It’s  really strange. 

 
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