Yeesh…

Posted by Arottenripedud@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 29 comments

I thought I had found my “peoples”.

But this is just a gatekeeper gang throwing jump kicks at anyone who wasn’t glued to a TV post 1985.

You guys are borderlining the “ya’ll don’t know real life if you came home before (a picture of a dad slapping a kid/street light on).

The only thing cool about our micro-generation was our toys.

[-]

DoctorQuarex@reddit

You post in r/entertainment and r/glowups. Nice try with the crocodile tears about us being too fixated on pop culture, but part of my Xennial education was learning to spot disingenuous trolls online

[-]

Arottenripedud@reddit (OP)

You are a nerd. I posted on them because that’s what shows up on my whatever. And what part of being a xennial is online related?

[-]

DoctorQuarex@reddit

We were just about to become teenagers when they created the World Wide Web(tm). Who do you think made all those cringey Web 1.0 fan pages? 40 year old Baby Boomers? 8 year old Millennials? That was all us. I wish any of my GeoCities pages still existed so I could laugh about the things I wanted to hype up online as if anyone cared. And the one thing we knew for sure was that you should never tell anyone your real name because 50% of people online were predators in the literal or metaphorical sense.

[-]

TransportationOk657@reddit

This is very different from my experience on this sub. Sure, there are the occasional Xennial gatekeepers, but the majority of the people/comments I see are very accepting and nonjudgmental. I see a lot of people outside of the typical Xennial age range still welcomed into the sub/discussions.

[-]

spookyhellkitten@reddit

Sometimes things get deep, sometimes they're just shallow nostalgia. It's reddit. You just expand the topics you have an interest in and go from there.

[-]

mstermind@reddit

I'm born and raised in Sweden. Whatever experiences I had as a young lad would probably not be shared or understood by most people in this subreddit. Finding common ground usually ends up in talking about Transformers toys.

[-]

sambashare@reddit

I feel like I missed something, but ok. I've found a bunch of shared experiences in here. Sometimes it's just pop culture references, sometimes nostalgia, and sometimes more serious stuff that resonates with our cohort. It's not always relevant to me, but that's all right because we've all had different experiences. So... I guess you had a disagreement with someone. I mean, it happens.

[-]

Arottenripedud@reddit (OP)

Negative. No disagreements. But it sure seems super commercialized. 30 years past too!

[-]

Dark-Empath-@reddit

The reason is likely two-fold.

First, a lot of our childhood and teens were commercialised. The toys we had, the music we listened to, the TV and films we watched. Second, these are the things that tend to be more widely experienced. I could reminisce about some local event that I attended in 1988 on a school trip. It’s a standout moment for me. But I’m not going to get much traction reminiscing with people on here who have no shared experience of it. But pop culture? Sure, I can share those memories with people here living in countries around the world.

If there are things which are outside pop culture and still relatable then by all means, post and will engage if I can.

[-]

Arottenripedud@reddit (OP)

Then share it. Share it like it meant back then. As it feels now, it seems very meme-like.

[-]

Dark-Empath-@reddit

It was a “horticultural festival” but there were loads of rides and stalls, and it felt like it was a magical event. People came from towns and cities all over to attend. We were all packed into buses at school and made our way there. Myself and the other kids all bought the same sunglasses thinking we looked very cool. Probably looked like hundreds of mini Blues Brothers walking about. The sun was shining. It’s was just memorable. Not relatable for anyone who wasn’t there however. I’d be more likely to reminisce with people who actually experienced it.

[-]

Arottenripedud@reddit (OP)

But I read it. Unlike pictures of games or anime. It’s about the story.

[-]

Dark-Empath-@reddit

Thanks but I’m really looking for a shared experience, someone who can also offer their memories and perhaps bring back memories I’d forgotten.

[-]

Arottenripedud@reddit (OP)

I appreciate that write up. That’s the kind of stuff I’m talking about!

[-]

Dark-Empath-@reddit

Cool, thanks for sharing.

We are just a group of people born over the same range of years, meaning we likely have similar shared experiences of the pop culture of the time - music, films, television and suchlike. That’s it, nothing more. We aren’t anyone’s “peoples”, we aren’t guaranteed to all have the same personality, personal experiences, opinions, be friends or all even like each other.

By all means, drop in, share some experiences that some others can relate to, reminisce and then check out again. You don’t need validation from anyone here. Nor should you expect it has a given.

[-]

Arottenripedud@reddit (OP)

But why only pop culture? Guess I was looking for something more than skin deep.

[-]

Dark-Empath-@reddit

Sure, what else? Politics? That would be even more localised but sure - what else interests you and could be relatable with others based on their age group?

[-]

Arottenripedud@reddit (OP)

I dunno, life in general as someone in their mid 40’s?

I apologize. I’m not too keen on the Thundercats.

I mistook this subreddit for something it is not! No hard feelings.

[-]

Dark-Empath-@reddit

Yeah no probs but I’m just trying to accommodate. Life in general is quite a large and varied topic. If there is something we might have a shared experience in then let’s go for it.

[-]

Arottenripedud@reddit (OP)

This is a place where we could really share stories. We could talk about how old we were when we first shot at that dog for laughing at us for missing a duck in Duck Hunt. In depth stuff that allows us a peak in to “kids” who were in the same situation.

I feel like we our little world gets lost in the “well we had phones attached to the wall/we had to dig behind our TV to play the Atari/we got left alone in a Sears for hours in the toy section.”

We should be sharing those stories, connecting…not posting a picture of Darkwing Duck and saying “Who remembers this quacker?

[-]

Dark-Empath-@reddit

I mean sure. Although not sure how playing Duck Hunt on the NES is any less pop culture or commercialised. It’s applicable to anyone who had that particular game for that particular gaming console.

Fortunately I did. My father brought me the NES with light gun and Duck Hunt. I also had the robot with the spinning gyro which it lifted up and spun around on a button. It opened and closed gates for your character in the associated game. Can’t remember what it was called, but a really bizarre concept looking back now.

[-]

Arottenripedud@reddit (OP)

I was always jealous of the peoples that had that gyro robot as my Nintendo only came with the Mario/Duck Hunt cartridge.

I’m not complaining about the commericialism…I’m complaining about the lack of story behind it.

And you know, maybe we don’t always remember the story behind it, or don’t have one (trying to get the Nintendo glove to actually work). That’s fine. But it’s the story that counts.

[-]

VectorJones@reddit

What profound thing do you expect to hear that's going to single us out from any other generation? We got our heart broke sophomore year? Daddy used to beat us? Our older brother died in a war? We fought with our little sister all the time? Any generation can say that kind of thing.

We reminisce about the things that singled out our time from everyone else's. Our shows, our movies, our music, and everything else is that does that for us.

[-]