Sometimes, just to try to keep up with the times, I'll listen to the Top 40 playlist in Spotify. It doesn't usually take very long before I say, "Ugh, what am I listening to?" and turn that noise off.
This is because I am no longer hip. This is a simple fact, evidenced not only by the fact that I consider much of the new music to be "noise", but also by my 9:30pm bed time and the fact that going to concerts where I have to stand the whole night sounds loud and exhausting.
Still, I like to keep on top of the world of cool things that I don't understand.
Luckily, my job brings in apprentices every year, and they are almost always new university grads. This gives me access to youthful insights as my body and brain insist on continually ageing. Basically, I get to feed off of their youth, year in and year out.
Recent examples:
I learned what "basic" means and that PSL stands for pumpkin spiced latte (these two items are related).
I downloaded Snapchat and then asked them what the heck this was for and what I should be doing with it and then deleted it.
I ask them what music they like and then hope hope hope that I've heard of it! (Sometimes I have!)
The thing is, I only really want to stay in the loop so that I know what people are talking about and to keep my brain from atrophy as I age. In many years, I want to be the grandma who's using hollodecks and not afraid to teleport*, which means that I need to make an incremental effort to check out whatever it is the kids are into throughout my life.
In the meantime, I really just want to listen to the music of my youth and watch old episodes of Murphy Brown and Friends.
*This is, of course, assuming that we haven't had a climate change-related apocalypse and have to support ourselves without electricity on a coastal desert. Then the young and hip thing won't be so important and I should be working on my "squeezing water from a rock" skills instead.
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