Am I Getting Old? (Part 2: Internet Memes)

In my last post, I ended with a sentiment along the lines of 'I never thought I would be the old guy that didn't understand what the kids were into at the time.'  And that's true.  I always thought I would be able to keep up with the trends.  Even if I didn't like them, I would still understand them, and accept their existence. 

Sure, there will always be a generational gap.  I understand why my grandmother has literally never even touched the keyboard on a computer before.  She was 80 by the time computers became common in most homes.  And fifteen years later, she still has no use for eBay or YouTube or even Email.  And I understand that when I'm 80, I too may have no interest in what ever the latest technology du jour happens to be.

But not having an interest in something is different than not understanding it.  I'm sure my grandmother understands and accepts that computers make life easier for most people, even if she has no interest in them herself.  That said, I doubt very much that she understands the appeal of techno music.  To her, I can only imagine she thinks it's some kind of joke that people actually claim to enjoy that kind of… noise.

That's why I always thought I would be immune to the condition that seems to come with age, wherein people seem to simply stop understanding the new trends.  Even though I don't care for techno music - at all - I can still see how it might appeal to those that do.  My lack of interest doesn't affect my ability to understand and accept it.  And since I've always been able to separate the two, I thought maybe this would carry on throughout my entire life.  That maybe I would be the exception.  That I would never utter something like "that's not rap music, that's crap music…"

But that dream might be dead.  I may have crossed that threshold.  I might be through the looking glass here, and there might be no turning back.  And it's all because I don't understand planking. 

Or owling. 

Or coning.

And I'm not sure if that makes me old or not.  Is it true, do you just reach a certain age, or point in your life when the stuff that the younger generation does just confuses you?  Or is planking just inherently stupid, and as a sane human being I have every right to not understand it?

Did 65 year old people in the 70's simply not understand bell bottoms, the same way 65 year old people in the 80's didn't understand rap music, the same way 65 year old people in 90's didn't understand Beavis and Butt-head?  Or did they understand it, and just chose not to participate in it?

Actually, I think that might be what it is.  The more I think about it, it's not so much that I don't understand planking, as it is that I just have no desire to participate in it.

If I may give an example, from my youth:  As teenagers (and maybe even into our early 20's) my friends and I invented a new activity that we called 'carting'.  And basically, all it was, was getting a pick up truck, driving to a grocery store, throwing a shopping cart in the box, waiting until it was dark, and then tying a rope from the bumper of the truck to the handle of the cart and dragging it down the highway.  I know.  There's no need to make that face at me.  I know.  It was pretty redneck, small town Alberta, and not exactly the exploits of future Nobel Prize winners.  But we had a blast doing it. 

I guess, the appeal was in the stupidity.  The childlike sense of watching a shower of sparks flying off of a shopping cart was in much the same way a kid might be fascinated by putting one end of a stick in camp fire and then pulling it out and waving it around.  Or maybe it was the small dose of excitement we got knowing we could get in trouble if we were seen by the police, or really any other cars at all.  The danger of getting away with something, if you will.

I don't know what it was that made us think that it was so fun, but when you're having fun, you don't often stop to question why.

And I guess, if I had never done it, and heard about carting for the first time today, as the latest internet meme, I would regard it in the same way I currently regard planking.  I would shake my head and weep for the future.  But, if I took such pleasure at some point in my life, by doing something just as stupid as planking, then I can't really say I don't understand it.  Perhaps it has the same appeal to today's youth that a bunch of sparks on a highway once had for me.  Maybe the stupidity of the whole thing is the appeal.

But that doesn't change the fact that my old ass still wants nothing to do with it.