This posting has been influenced by personal experience with Facebook postings. It has also been influenced by the podcast Keith and the Girl. I listen to it every morning at 
work. It is one of the best produced podcast out there on the Internet. It is explicit, rude and sometimes can get very socially unacceptable. The truth is that it is very funny, more importantly it is very honest. If you can handle it you should become a fan too. The host Keith is very critical of social websites. People are complaining that MySpace is too childish. So they are going to Facebook to escape it. Yet on Facebook people are constantly sending fake drinks, foods and other nonexistent gifts. (Sounds childish?) As Keith says, “Someone sent me a picture of a Mahito drink…O.K….What the fuck am I suppose to do it with it now? …How about sending me a real drink? …Asshole.” I get the same things sent to me by well meaning friends. Friends I feel have too much free time. I know. It is the thought that counts. So I am now going to send those photos of foods on to websites for starving children in Third World countries. The thought should make them feel better. I am such a humanitarian. But somehow you are going to be confused and think that I am the asshole. I guess it is all about the context.
The other thing is I get a lot of postings of the results of friends’ online pop psychology quizzes. Guess which 80’s movie I am. Guess which food I am. Guess which cartoon character I am. My top 5 books, movies, TV shows, etc. And the list goes on and on. And so does the listings on my Facebook Wall. I guess they can be fun. I feel out of courtesy you should maybe do only ONE a day. Better yet one a week. How about setting a specific page where it is the only place where the results are posted. There have been a lot of news reports on how people are not getting the jobs they want because of what they post on their Facebook accounts. The potential employer sees a photo of a guy in his college days doing a beer bong. Who didn’t do ones of those in college? The photo of a female during spring break is seen “popping her hood” to win a t-shirt. Doesn’t that seem ironic? However, I do not think that is the problem employers are having is they see the page from a person who is telling them they are a “hard worker”. However, the same person posted over a dozen results from various pop psychology quizzes. The employer is seeing a person with a lot of free time on their hands. And this person may have the potential to go “gun waving crazy in the break room” if they take these quizzes and their answers seriously.
Pop culture is something we cannot escape. No matter what we think. We are neither above it nor below it. We are right in the middle of it. However, our relationship to any 
specific aspect of pop culture is constantly changing. Our experiences with it changes. Also what we need from it changes. It has some sense of relevance unless it has been organized into some type of “retro night”. Please whenever possible avoid them. I guess everybody goes through phases where they need to do some sort of analysis on themselves. They need to take some sort of barometric reading on the state of their circumstances. They more tests there are the more dissection of themselves. And all of these dissections will provide more foundation for a valid answer whatever it maybe. I think people take these tests and want to steer each question to a specific answer. Once again the relevance is based more on the desired outcome. People want more of the illusion rather than the cold hard facts. Everyone wants to be reaffirmed about how they perceive themselves. Take this example. Here is the test. What would your stripper name be? I am going to guess it is going to be exotic and unusual. As a stripper name should be. We do not want reality because it does not work. No one is paying for a stripper named “Low Self Esteem”, “Coke Whore” or “Daddy Issues”. We want the illusion. However, we just cannot say it directly. So we call it advertising. I am guessing if you take more than a few of these types of tests then you are looking for a bigger answer than these tests will provide.
I am not above this need to dissect my own psyche. If I was above it then I would not be writing a blog. I am always dissected myself. As being some type of writer I am always looking out at the world and culture and making judgment calls about it. I just don’t take multiple guess quizzes trying to determine an answer to what I see. I get the “prompt” in other words the “question”. And from there I attempt to find the answer. Remember those tests are created by others. And your answers are irrelevant in the scheme of things.
That all being said.
I am still not above all of it, the analysis, dissection and worse of all the nostalgia.
Which 80’s movie represents you? (In this case. Me.)
Given my age the answer should probably be a John Hughes movie. Like the Breakfast Club. How cliché. Or maybe it is The Outsiders.
I heard this song on my MP3 player. It comes from a movie soundtrack I had loaded on it.
MUSIC: Concrete Blonde (covering Leonard Cohen)
It is amazing that in a sad way that this song still has relevance to the time. This version is from the soundtrack for the movie Pump Up the Volume. (It was also the first movie 
in which I bought the soundtrack for. And after this movie, I also pay attention to how the soundtrack is assembled.) This movie is the story about a teenager who becomes underground hero/spokesperson on a pirate radio station. Christian Slater plays a quiet kid who is socially awkward and trying to find his place in a new school. He creates this persona called “Happy Harry Hard-on”. Every night, he broadcasts through the community on his pirate radio station. The technology may have changed over the last twenty years. However, the method and desire are the same. People create screen names and post blogs and podcasts using created persona names. Everyone has an opinion and an insight they know if they put their real face on will lead to a lot of trouble.
Here is a clip.
I also know the movie was released in 1990. I was never good a math so give a little slack here.
This movie also turned me on to the Lenny Bruce autobiography How to Talk Dirty and Influence People.
To end.
I wish one day pop culture would embrace my writings in mass so I can officially quit my day job. It is not selling out. It is selling to.
But I will compromise on this matter of pop culture tests. If there is a test for “Which type of turd are you?” I will take it.
Happy?