Humblebrags and other bits of popular culture I seem to have missed
This week I learned (from a management newsletter at work, no less) that the humblebrag is a turn-off and best avoided. I had hitherto been unaware of the existence of the humblebrag so I looked it up, the example given in the newsletter not being clear, and I remained unenlightened. It is apparently the act of bragging in a self-deprecating way, which made me wonder if it's largely an American phenomenon, as self-deprecating is (I always thought) the polite British default. I am now in a constant state of mild anxiety in case I commit this modern faux-pas without realising (I couldn't see anything wrong with the half-dozen examples I read, which leads me to believe I'm either a) dense, or b) doing it all the time).
On the same day a colleague made an allusion to someone's name being similar to a character from something. I not only had to have the character explained, but also the TV channel. When I last had a TV it had 4 channels (Channel 5 not being worth the effort of tuning in) and no remote control. I watch probably a couple of films or BBC programmes a week on iplayer but it's not the same experience as I'm not even aware of what channels I'm not watching, I don't see trailers for other programmes, and of course I don't see TV adverts (I'm sure I mainly watched the BBC when I had a TV, yet I seem to remember loads of 1980s adverts. I'll blame Channel 4 and their alternative comedy output). Occasionally people refer to a current advert at work (or on a Radio 4 comedy) and I'm completely clueless.
What with the lack of channel-hopping, and not reading newspapers (going straight for stories of interest on The Guardian or BBC News) I also don't know who half the latest celebrities are. I saw a film review the other day that claimed the cast list was full of 'Hollywood hot property' and I only recognised one name (and couldn't tell you a single film he's been in).
It does sometimes make me worry, being a writer and yet soaking up so little of my own time. Have I spent too long reading Trollope? I have been sticking to my quest for more recent literature this year, but several of those have been set in the past (or an alternative version of it) so it might not be helping as much as I want it to. Is it middle-age hitting full-force (the accuracy of being referred to as mid-thirties sadly waning) leaving me baffled by popular (youth) culture? Thinking about it, I've never been quite in step with my contemporaries (Big Brother's influence on my musical tastes had a lot to do with that) so I suspect I shall continue in partial ignorance. I certainly don't intend to start listening to Radio 1 and reading celebrity gossip pages to catch up.