What topics have you discussed, lately, with your 30-something friends that drew blank stares?

They didn’t know Ryan Gosling?? He isn’t exactly old and is a very popular actor these days.
I’m not surprised about Alan Alda though. I don’t think he has been topical for a long time really.

As for Great Expectations and North by Northwest. I am nearly 50 and although I have heard of them, I have never read or seen either one. Nor do I know what they are about :p

Elvis Presley.
U2.
“U whát?!”

Me: “I think you will find that Japan has very low crime rates.”
Colleague: “Yeah, duh, because if you steal something they’ll chop of your hands….”

@rebbel oh yikes!

I mentioned Carlton the Door Man in a class of twenty-somethings today and was met with blank stares.

I made it worse by saying, “Ya know, voiced by Lorenzo Music who was later the voice of Garfield the Cat.”

They had no idea who Lorenzo or Garfield were either.

I got blank stares from a group of twenty somethings when I asked them to read an analog clock. This had me testing my sanity by asking a few more youngsters. Yeah… none of them know how to tell time.

I said, “Looking good Billy Ray!” to someone and they didn’t know what I was talking about.

@ARE_you_kidding_me – That’s how technology affects our lives. Here’s good article on it. It’s really scary!!

My daughter has watched lots of MASH and has seen the Garfield movies, knows the Addams family pretty well, can beat anyone in Def Leppard trivia, likes Queen, KISS, and Aerosmith. She knows John Wayne and Clint. She thinks Juan Epstein was the cutest sweathog, and knows that Kotter now play the pro poker circuit.
She gets frustrated with friends who only avail themselves of contemporary entertainment, but can’t wait to brag to me when a teacher makes a comment that only she gets because nobody else has seen The Partrige Family.

@Patty_Melt David Cassidy was my first concert : )

Feeling jealous

Most of what I’m really passionate about will draw blank stares from people around me, especially people my age. I know I will draw a blank stare too when they start talking about their pop culture shit. So unless I’m around my close friends I just listen more, and try to avoid getting too specific about pop culture.

I’m 26 and I mentioned to a much older friend that I’m a huge fan of Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Orson Welles, and Alfred Hitchcock, and he actually gave me a blank stare lol

@rockfan Yikes!

Those are people from the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. I am now in my 50’s, but I knew about them, and so did most of my friends, when we were in our teens. I just don’t get it. We didn’t have social media, or round the clock news and TV back then. It was just part of what you learned about. The important people from the generations before you.

I haven’t had 30 something friends in 30 something years.

^^ Not when you were around 30 as well?

I don’t think anyone I know would bat a lash if I mentioned Jimmy Durante.
Ha cha cha chaaaa

@imrainmaker – back then of course. But today my kids are in their 30s. I prefer people in my own age group, I have more in common with them.

On edit: not putting younger people down. Age differences are a double edged sword, been there done that. I recall visiting with my dad and uncle one time when I was 30 something myself. They were talking about the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and I had no clue what that was. I vaguely rememberd studying the Depression in HS but I had never heard of the Dust Bowl nor had I ever read Grapes of Wrath. They both just looked at me like I was stupid. Just generational differences is all.

I’m 31 and I used to watch Ryan Gosling on the Mickey Mouse Club. You should just talk to me. I’m more interesting than them, anyway.

@Kardamom Mine was his little brother Shaun!

@rockfan I love you

How about a 40-something family member who’d never heard of the Jewish holocaust.

@NomoreY_A I consider myself lucky to have friends of all ages. My 2 closest friends, are 10 years younger, and 10 years older than me, respectively. I work with people from their 20’s up to their late 80’s. The eldest one, is one of my all time favorites. The younger ones, all seem to be very smart, but they just don’t seem to have a wide range of knowledge about things that are not current. I’m in my 50’s. My grandparents came out to CA because of the dustbowl. I knew all about it from my parents and grandparents, and learning about it in school. When I was a kid, I knew about Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby, and Jimmy Durante (hell, he narrates Frosty the Snowman, fer cryin’ out loud!) And Laurel and Hardy, and Rudolph Valentino, and Babe Ruth, and Charles Dickens, and Moby Dick, and Billie Holiday, and all sorts of things from many years past. Most of that stuff is what I would consider common knowledge. It really threw me for a loop when these folks didn’t know who, or what I was talking about.

I hear ya. Thats a lot of the reason I prefer to hang with people closer to me in age.

@NomoreY_A am I the only one who finds older people more interesting for conversation?

You might be the only one in your age group who feels that way : )

@anniereborn :)

It’s difficult for me to have a conversation with people in your age group @Mimishu1995. They’re just like I was in my 20’s: know it alls. They have the whole world figured out.

@Dutchess_III That’s only true if you are talking to average 20 somethings. I have met many youngsters that make me optimistic about the future.

I feel sorry for the people who can’t, or don’t want to, have friend relationships with people of different age groups. There is so much to learn from, and enjoy, about people of all ages.

I have friendships with a lot of different ages.

You have never had a 17 yr old follow you around like a puppy all day when when his own dad is nearbye, or had members of the opposite sex half your age tell you flat out that they would hit on you if you weren’t married. I am better off working with old guys my own age. I’m not fit to be a role model and I’m not an old pervert. Long stories I don’t care to delve into.