I remember seeing someone that I watch on my podcast talk about how culture is dying. He commented that there is nothing new coming out, and everything is just a rehash of everything old. I found that interesting, and wondered what that all meant.
I had noticed that all of the magazines and movies still had actors and actresses in them that I grew up with. In the last 10 years the People’s Sexiest Man Alive have been from my generation or at least older Millennials.: Patrick Dempsey, Chris Evans, Paul Rudd, John Legend, Idris Alba, Blake Sheldon, Dwayne Johnson, David Beckham, Chris Hemsworth, and Adam Levine.
When we talk about the top grossing movies and who stars in them most of them are Marvel movies that are predominately Gen-X and older millennial stars, There’s some Harry Potter movies based on books that came out when Millennials were kids, and then a lot of remakes like The Fast and the Furious, Despicable me, and Jurassic Park… again. The best movies are still the cult classics like the John Hughes films and pop culture has created merch around my childhood.
I recently started to listen to the radio again and I noticed in my area, which is the Boston area, not some hick county, there are now 3 stations with K-Love (a Christian radio station), and most of the others play hits of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. That’s 50 years ago! I remember when they got rid of the “Oldies” station because it’s original intent was to play music for the Boomers from when they were kids and at the time it was 20-30 years old.
The average age of the best actor that one the Oscar this year was 53. The average age for a woman was 45 . It is hardly a young person’s game anymore. Growing up most of the big actor were in their 30s. Names like Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves, Tom Hanks.. they were the young people when I was growing up, and they are still the ones on the cover of all the magazines and TMZ follows around like puppies.
I was starting to think that the guy in the podcast was right. Until I went to the movies with my kid. When I was younger going to the movies was what everyone did. Every Friday and Saturday night the place was packed. We always walked to the theater which was best because there was never any parking. Even when my goddaughters were young and I’d take them to the movies there was always a line for popcorn and the bathroom. One of them is a young Millennial the other a Gen-z.
Now when you go to the theater it’s empty. Now everyone stays home and streams movies. They stream movies and videos and shorts on their own devices. When I was little everyone watched the one TV in the house with their whole family. Now I have to check my kid’s YouTube history to see what he’s watching. Though he and I do have our shows that we watch together on the apps. I’m looking at you Father Brown.
Kids today don’t listen to the radio in the cars with their parent. They are plugged into whatever device they have through Bluetooth headphones and have no idea what’s going on around them. And the adults have no idea what the kids are watching. There is no shared culture because no one shares anything. Everyone is in their own bubble. The new generation doesn’t have a favorite actor. They have their favorite influencer or gamer. My kid is all about Unspeakable and .. I wanna say Ubb.. but part of me feels like that can’t be real.
If we want to have a future and a community and culture that we all share. We have to start unplugging and start communicating again.
Katrina Michelle Russell 