I'm out of touch?!

Out of touch with what?

I was never under the impression that I was in touch.

Every time my friends talk about whatever the new popular TV show is.

Me: "Um, I ate some edibles and watched a Law & Order marathon".

You know... "with it".

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.

When I was out of time.

I completed the throw-in and stepped back on the pitch

No, it's the children who are wrong.

I don't think I've ever been in touch.

But did you know I was out of my head?

there are lots of things I don't wann touch.

that kinda makes me outa my head.

I’m not out of touch. I am, however, way more picky now about what I choose to touch.

Some of my friends are into anime and live play TTRPG shows like Critical Role. I have no idea what they're talking about when they discuss those.

past couple of years most of my ability to socialize has collapsed because I can't relate to other folks anymore.

mostly because they are miserable and I am not. and they think I'm miserable because I'm not agonizing about the things they agonize about endlessly, so we are just never going to find common ground. and i come across like a massive arrogant douchebag because I'm doing well where they are struggling. and what alienates me more is... the are not legitimately struggling in any way... but they have convinced themselves nobody has it worse than them... it's just insufferable IMO. and often they are actually doing way better than I am... but think they are doing worse...

i also lost like a dozen friends since the end of covid, because they went insane, but they are more 'normal' than I am because well, a lot of people went insane from covid and I legit loved it and came out way better off.

i also can't relate to gen z and how totally miserable they are. even my own nephews/nieces all they want to do is agonize about how awful their life is and will be... despite objectively them being incredibly well off...

and i see a lot of this attitude all over the internet endlessly, which also sucks.

No. It's the children who are wrong.

Maybe everyone is, in fact, suffering a bit.

the are not legitimately struggling in any way...

What does a legitimate struggle look like to you?

When I learned about the 6 7 thing two years after it was a meme.

Right around age 12 when I'd rather play Gears of War 2 than Modern Warfare 2, and it wasn't even close in my mind.

Lol I'm autistic, I've never been in touch. I rarely understand what's going on but I fake it really well!

And out of time as well.

But I'm outta my head when you're not around.

To answer this without a Hall & Oates reference, a younger Gen Z friend of mine was talking to me about looksmaxxing and aurafarming and I just had 0 fucking idea what he was on about.

I then realized I'm out of touch and out of time.

No, it's the children who are wrong.

When they started saying "ts"

I'm a Millennial and I could kinda follow Gen Z humor for the most part, but then Gen alpha came along with Skibidi Toilet. That broke me, I'm... I'm done.

This just cements how chronically online I must be, because as a millennial, I am familiar with E, Ugandan knuckles, and skibidi (watched the whole series)

Is it really that much worse than the annoying orange and other random YT videos?

when you're not around

I'm pretty sure the latest episode of South Park explained these concepts. I'm old and miserable, so I feel asleep halfway through.

When progressive commercials about becoming your parents did “finding the game” and “social media influencer” I’m like “well I crossed over to being with the parents I guess”

When I could no longer understand the latest online slang, I realized I’m out of touch with whatever the current online generation is (gen alpha?).

Yeah gen Alpha stuff is mostly off the rails. I still keep up with the slang and general touchstones though.

A post a bit ago reminded me of one: When texting, I end sentences with punctuation 99% of the time. Apparently, this holds different meaning to younger people in at least the US. Thankfully, I'm not messaging any of those, but it still bugs me for no real, good reason.

If it makes you feel any better, your post here and now is the first time I heard of it. No clue what the 6 7 thing is, lol.

Same… I am on the very mild end of the autism spectrum, and had to consciously learn how to socially interact with kids my age like I was Jane Goodall studying some damn apes or something.

I think when I moved from not liking things younger people enjoyed to simply having no idea what they enjoy at all.

I've never been particularly with it on trends and such. When I was younger I knew the trends and rejected them in the spirit of youthful rebellion, aspects of my personality were defined by what and who I wasn't.

Then I got a little older and rejected the things people slightly younger than me enjoyed. This came naturally, because I was no longer the target audience for these things it was easy to write them off as if I were.

Now I don't even know enough to reject them. My knowledge of what younger people like seems to be about five years out of date. When something new comes along that seems irritating to me it seems to pass so quickly I don't really have time to register it, and when I find something new I enjoy there's apparently whole fandoms about it where (presumably... hopefully...) very young people fight about it, and they're fighting about things I genuinely don't have time to decipher. It's like it all moves too fast for my vision to really gain focus, by the time I'm able to tell what I'm looking at everyone else seems to have already moved on.

Oh good! I'm not alone.

That kinda implies that there was a time where being "in touch" was a priority for me. Nah, I'm more interested in people keeping up with me.

I really tried to be the funny uncle for some time, but everything is already out for at least 2 years when I talk to my nephews. I recently found a funny video of people with toilet heads

It wasn't the first time I've noticed, but a huge one for me was Weird Al's album "Mandatory fun". I had no idea who a majority of the artists he was parodying.

If you have kids moving into their teens you figure it out fast.

They start speaking an entirely different language.

As you grown into an adult you follow your peer group and friends through whatever social life, maybe going to places like bars or events that keep up with music trends. You all like the new banger from whoever that shows up on the playlist or New Year’s Eve party. You talk about new series, what entertainer is in concert or on social media, you still remain connected to trends.

But at some point life intrudes, work starts wearing, maybe start a family, and you have less time for these excursions. Crowded, noisy, expensive bars get way less attractive and maybe you have a couple favorite chill spots that play music you like. You’ve got your playlists set. Your streaming music is “bestof” a decade a lot of the time. This is where diversion starts, you choose the familiar over seeking out the new and exciting. But you don’t really notice, you got shit to do.

But eventually you do. Younger coworkers start talking about entertainment and people more and more often you don’t know. They start using phrases and slang you have to figure out. And like I said, if you have kids, you’re gonna have to learn 6-7, gyatt, and the most irritating - the repurposing of words and symbols you already knew. # is number or pound, not just hashtag you illiterate heathens. Maybe your closet, too. You’ve now had the same jacket for 15 years, among many other pieces of clothing that have lasted; jeans, shirts, pullovers, whatever. That’s ok, why keep buying new throwaway fashion? They’re still good to wear.

So now you listen to “old” music, maybe some of your clothes are old enough to vote, and you spend time on Urban Dictionary or KnowYourMeme so you don’t feel lost when younger people sart talking about pretty much anything.

That’s when you know.

After the first few times that my kids sent me a meme and I had no idea what it meant.

When I've seen people showing 0 interest in the content they watch, but 100% interest in being lobotomized for 60 seconds instead.

As soon as I cut everyone out of my life and just started going to work coming home and gaming. I just let life pass by because it seems like too much work to be involved in it.

I have always been "out of touch". I used to reject pop-culture because I thought I was too cool for it. Now I avoid pop-culture because it's a habit. Whenever I attempt to participate in pop-culture I quickly realize why I made avoiding it a habit.

Ahem... # is Octothorpe

I see your octothorpe and raise you libra pondo.

Probably always been a bit out of touch. Never really enjoyed pop culture. The first time was probably around 10 when everyone started getting into social media and I was like why the fuck would you ever put your real name and face on the internet.