Kurt Cobain (front) and Krist Novoselic (left) live at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I had occasion to hang out with some girls who are a bit younger than I am; I don’t want to admit how much younger because every time I try, I have to go sulk for a while and I want to get this blog post published tonight. We started out talking about current events, which went fine. I summarized world events and gave insightful and witty commentary, and the girls all nodded appreciatively because they had no idea what I was talking about. My favorite kind of audience.
I should add that, throughout the conversation, even when they were all talking excitedly to each other, they all had their cell phones out and were texting and surfing and twittering the entire time. They either have the most amazing abilities to concentrate on more than one conversation at once, or else they’re talking to me and simultaneously tweeting things like “Sky cloud sleeping greenly lol asdf qwerty #notreallypayingattention #godhelpthefuture”. I don’t know. I don’t really understand this Twitter thing.
Which brings me to tonight’s blog topic: I am not old! I’m not, really. It’s just these kids today, with their smart phones and their YouTube…did you know that MTV doesn’t play music videos anymore? I didn’t know that. I’m pretty sure I still wouldn’t have known that even if I owned a television. Oh, and no one actually uses a cell phone to call someone anymore. It’s all texting and tweeting. The only call I saw any of the girls get was from one of their parents.
One girl was typing away on her netbook (I think that’s what it was) and went to save her work, commenting “I’ve never understood why this icon means ‘save’. I don’t even know what it is.” I leaned over; it was the icon for a floppy disk. I tried really hard to not feel old. I was wearing low-rise jeans! And I was entitled to! You can’t do that and be old, right?
Then the conversation turned to our taste in music. I recognized at least half of the names they mentioned as their favorite artists, which was encouraging. Some of them even liked Adele and thought she was cool, and I was all “Me, too! Me too! Wow, you guys are awesome. We’re totally bonding.” Then I plucked up my courage and mentioned Kurt Cobain, musical genius and tortured soul, and how much I enjoy the body of work he left behind. Four blank stares and complete silence. Then, and I’m not kidding about this, one of them asked, “Who’s Kurt Cobain?”
And then I gave up. I’m old. I’d tweet it to the world if I knew how.
iliketheworldfuzzy.com 
Oh, noes! It is so sad that they don’t know who Kurt is.
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I know! I feel so sorry for them. Some things make getting older worth it.
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You are not old; you are enlightened.
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Yeah! That’s it! I still like Adele, though.
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Now I feel old. Who’s Adele?
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Oh, God. Please tell me you’re joking! If not, haul yourself over to Itunes immediately and check her out. Once in a generation talent.
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Umm, I don’t iPod, hence I do not iTune. Honestly, I am tech literate; however, I tend to tune out to the current music scene due to the excess noise in my head. I do have a Jack Johnson station on my Pandora. Do I earn back some cool points?
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Well, I have no idea what a Pandora is, so you’re clearly cooler than I am!
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Get outta town, girl. It’s the free radio station on the internet. Type in Pandora.com and have some fun. I grew up with FM radio and I betcha half, if not all the kids I teach would go: “Radio, What’s a radio?” If I asked them. In fact, I will tomorrow.
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Hah! I do know Adele. I’ve heard her tunes when I’m malling–just didn’t know it was her. How about Lenka and Sara Bareilles? Ahem, did you look up Pandora–are were you joshing me…
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I was starting to feel old with those girls not knowing what a floppy disk was – but this thread is making me feel better as I know Adele, iTunes, AND Pandora. ^.^ Not to brag or anything… 😉
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okay, I’m looking up Adele today…
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The LBG thinks she’s “old”. Harumph!!
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That’s right, RWG, whine away!
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In dog years, I’d be dead! LBG, you’re not old! Johnny Depp is a hotty and music videos from the ’80’s and ’90’s are great!
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Anything by Flock of Seagulls is just quality entertainment. These kids don’t know what they’re missing!
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LOL Great post. I just recently had to explain to my son why the floppy disk symbol meant “save.” *sigh*
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#weareancient #iswearweusedtobecool
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#iknowright #nowwheresmywalkman
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How can they not know Kurt Cobain!? That’s like saying you don’t know who John Lennon is! On the bright side, my cousin’s 14-year-old daughter posted the video for Bille Jean to her FB and commented “this will forever be my jam”, so all is not lost. Some of the youth are still edumacated 🙂
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There are young people out there who seriously don’t know who the Beatles are. It makes my blood run cold. And I agree: Billie Jean is forever!
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Floppy disk icon thing was very original and true as well… it;s same as, there was a time (not long before) when music used to be played on cassettes, movies used to be on VCR and phone used to be at home only… We witnessed some very huge transitions in the technology.
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Imagine trying to explain cassettes to the ipod generation. “So let me make sure I have this right. I play these things in a Walkman? Which is how big? How am I supposed to hide that during class?”
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😀 … Very true.
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I LOVE Adele.. and I AM, luckily, heading towards old!
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I think Adele transcends generations. Thank heaven, or I would have been completely lost!
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#youarenotold. Although I’m just 18 and a bit, I love that kind of music. God, I’d choose oldies, Bon Jovi (omg, went to two of his live concerts) and those people over any song by Justin Beaver, or whatever his name is. (intentionally wrote his name that way)
Great post!
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#iamafreakingdinosaur You know what I remember? Hanson. I remember Hanson. Justin Bieber ain’t got nothin on them bad boys. I think the military started using Hanson as a torture device. Or was that the Spice Girls?
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Oh my.. Spice Girls, haha! Hey, I love Queen, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses if that makes you feel better. #youarenotadinosaur #dontworry #youarejustbetterthanallofthem!
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sigh….just sigh….a shocking event from my life becomes someone’s huh? I often use music to calculate my “actual age” not good lol
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I know. I remember that dark day. And now it’s just an entry on Wikipedia.
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This post reminds me of a shirt I recently couldn’t help buying http://shirt.woot.com/friends.aspx?k=24671
“Introducing: The Floppy Diskette!”
I remember back when we got a Zip drive on our home computer and just thought we were so cutting edge. Oh yeah, baby.
As for music, I was once very impressed with a group of high schoolers singing along to Everclear at a free outdoor concert (about 3 years ago). There is hope!
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I love that shirt! And I still have a Zip drive. My dad gave it to me, so I’m afraid to get rid of it. It was really cool when I first got it. Singing along to Everclear, huh? I’ve never liked them since they were mean to a friend of mine. Still, probably better than, say, Paris Hilton’s sojourn into the music business. Probably.
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Take heart. Record players skipped a generation, and now vinyl is all the rage. We’ll be cool again. One day. One day.
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Yeah, those huge boom boxes will come back into style and…no, I just can’t see it!
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Lol I’ve has some moments like this, when I was teaching for a summer camp, I referenced full house and sesame street. They had no idea what those were! I felt so old and that was 6 years ago!
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They didn’t know Sesame Street?? My God. Hang on, I’ve just got to check something. Huh. It doesn’t look like an apocalypse outside….
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I love floppy discs! And I’m a 90s kid! (Late 90s, too). We used to have those multicoloured ones and I saved my school projects on them (a red one, I believe) to take them between home and school.
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