Opting Out of the Popular (1 Viewer)

[Rob Gillespie]

Thought of another one - I don't watch television.

Sure, I have a television to watch all these bloody DVDs, but I don't have an aerial so don't receive air broadcasts. Consequently I don't have to pay the £126.50 per year for the UK TV Licence.

I used to watch a lot, but when I moved into and renovated my flat, I just never bothered getting the aerial sorted out. I haven't missed it.

 

[Danny Tse]

What Ryan said, plus....

- never owned a gaming system (except for a Coleco Pong machine)

- never seen any of the Matrix, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Rocky, Rambo movies. Also never seen ET, Gone With The Wind, Jaws, Close Encounter, or Toy Stories either.

- never watched a complete episode of any "reality" TV show

- never watched a complete episode of Friends, Arrested Development, Lost, House, OC, etc.

- never owned Apple anything

- never purchased any shoes/clothing/car/books from the internet

- never went clubbing

- never went to a strip joint intentionally

- never downloaded music off of the internet

- never had a car that can do a burnout

- married

- never had a Dolby Digital/dts-capable home theater

- never really enjoyed In-and-Out Burgers

- never invested in any stocks

 

[MarkHastings]

LMAO! Damn! Being....forced....to watch.....naked....breasts!

 

[StephenA]

I don't own a MP3 player. I just never had the desire to own one. I've never owned a PDA or iPod either.

I've never had Starbucks. I don't like coffee anyways, so it hasn't appealed to me.

I tried Krispy Kreme doughnuts once and didn't like them at all and wondered why they're so popluar.

I never followed any trends when I was younger, and still don't.

I don't like a lot of today's music, and didn't really follow the current music much growing up either. My favorite band was and still is the Moody Blues, and quite a few older people find it hard to believe that I'm 26 and I know who they are. Same with Nat King Cole, Jim Croce, Glenn Miller, and Dr Hook. I know more about music before my time than I do of today's stuff.

I've never owned a laptop computer.

I've never really got into reality shows, and don't plan on it either.

I don't own a cell phone or beeper, and don't plan on it. It's not like I'm hard to reach anyways.

I've never eaten sushi.

I've never seen It's A Wonderful Life.

I only saw the first Harry Potter movie because my sister wanted to see it, so I brought her to the theater to see it. Since she grew out of liking Harry Potter, I haven't seen any of the other movies. I haven't read any of the books at all.

Never went to any parties as a teen, and still haven't been to one.

I didn't drink any alcohol or get drunk until after I turned 21.

I've never smoked a cigarette. I tried pot a few times, but it doesn't appeal to me. I've never done any other drugs though.

I've never downloaded music or movies.

 

[Holadem]

Man, did you hit that one out of the park or what! Never a seen a sentence casue so much stir in a thread! Could it be because... it's true?

I never understood the need some people feel to avoid something because it's popular. I know two persons who intend never to watch Titanic for that very reason.

Actively avoiding something because everyone is doing it is no less pathetic than doing it because everyone does.

--
H

 

[Kevin T]

because people want to feel that they are part of the counter-culture. unfortunately, these are the same people who fail to realize that the counter-culture now is really the over-the-counter-culture.

kevin t

 

[MarkHastings]

Well, I don't think most (if not all) of the reponses here fall into this category at all.

I don't see people avoiding these things BECAUSE they are popular. I see the responses as being "These are the thing that I am not into, but a lot of people are into."

Again, I don't think any of these responses are "I don't do this because it's popular".

Our responses are more like: Can you actually believe that I am not into (insert very popular trend here). Like cell phones, I sometimes forget that there are people who just don't have them.

 

[Eric Kahn]

Darn, I forgot the don't drink, don't smoke part

and I have an MP3 player in my car (along with XM radio) so I do not have to listen to regular radio

 

[Christ Reynolds]

agreed.

CJ

 

[Henry Gale]

I am more out of the mainsteam than thou.

The details would just shock you and certainly violate Forum Rule #4. :b

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Mark, as sad as it sounds those people actually exist.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I can completely identify with this thread as I have always been "different" my whole life.

I would sooner slice off my own nipples with a rusty razor blade followed by a dousing of salt and lemon juice than buy a film on dvd that isn't in it's OAR.

I have never succumbed to peer-pressure, IMO it's for the weak minded who can't form their own opinion and be their own person.

I never cared about being "cool" or hanging out with "the cool kids".

I'm 33 and I have never touched a drop of alchohol, unless you count cough syrup.

I have never smoked and never will, I decided that when I was 6 because it smelled bad and I didn't like it.

I, too, don't drive, I don't feel comfortable behind the wheel of a car, it's just better for everyone that I don't drive. I walk, walking builds not only character but one hell of a strong cardiovascular system. When I hear people complain that it's "too hot" or "too cold" when they're only walking to their car I just cringe. Cry babies.

I've never partied hard or done drugs, I need no outside influences to have a good time.

I don't watch football, baseball or any other sport except for Nascar. The extent to which people get into football utterly mystifies me, they talk about it like it's a religion and it angers me when Terryl Owens' hurt leg gets front page headlines and a murder or another terrible event get's bumped to page 3.

I generally feel that the priorities of human beings are bass ackwards, the above footbal comment falls under that category.

I never went to the prom, didn't want to, not my scene.

I've never been to Starbucks, either.

I always root for the underdog, that's why I like NASCAR...because everyone else hates it.

I don't own an ipod and never will, in fact I generally try to distance myself as much as I can to the whole on-line, high-tech digital age as I believe it will bring about our downfall, I also feel that it's making everyone just plain lazy.

Just give me a CD and a Walkman and leave me alone already.

I actually go to the store to buy my dvd's, with the exception of rare or hard to find ones that I bought on ebay.

I collect action figures and I don't care what anyone thinks about that.

I don't care for hip-hop and rap with the exception of one or two songs.

I couldn't care less about Hollywood and celebrity life styles, to me Hollywood is another planet and I don't care what goes on on other planets. Ooohh, Britney Spears had a baby and bought him a diamond studded rattle!! Who gives a shit.

I like the The Backstreet Boys and N Synch.

I don't follow the space program, I believe that it's a tremendous waste of time and money, we're never getting off this rock. The only aspect of the space program that I do care about is asteroid watch, those can hit us and that would be bad.

Like I said...different.

 

[Jon_Are]

Wow.

You win.

Jon

 

[Todd Hochard]

Agreed.

I bought Starbucks at 8.

 

[Danny Tse]

Just not my preferred way of seeing some naked breasts.

To continue this thread....

- never went to the Jr. Prom or the Senior Ball

- never attended the X'mas at my current workplace

- never kissed butt to get ahead

- never created my own website or any other website

- despite being Asian, never gotten straight A's in school

- never owned a souped-up compact import car

- never been to Florida for Spring Break

- never owned a PDA or Blackberry or whatever those things are

- never wake up naked next to someone I don't know

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Hey, i'm just bein' me.

 

[RobertR]

Neither have I. The comments I've made in this have to do with those people who do something because it's popular. The popularity (or lack thereof) is not what makes something appealing to me.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I would have to say that I fall into the category of those that distance themselves from the popular opinion, and I think I know why to some extent, at least in my case.

To me, things are a little more "special" when not everyone knows about it and it isn't well known, almost as if the given subject was made just for me somehow, as soon as it's adopted by everyone and everyone begins talking about it, it loses it's appeal for me and I don't fully know why.

I don't know...

 

[Citizen87645]

So is the other thread titled "Opting FOR the popular" with it's FOUR posts (versus this thread's 59 posts) causing an existential dilemma for you?

 

[MarkHastings]

I watched Friends from day 1 (mainly because I was a fan of Jennifer Aniston from "The Edge" and followed her career moves after that), but once Friends became REALLY popular, I started hating the show.

I actually don't think I hated the show BECAUSE of its popularity, I hated it because the show changed in order to appeal TO its popularity. Thus, this change is what turned me off. Friends used to be about friends and I identified with that, once Chandler and Monica got married, the show took a turn from appealing to the 'single' people, to the 'married/relationship' people. This is what made its popularity EXPLODE! I liked the show better when its appeal was with the single people. My hatred of the show did increase because of a bitterness I had with the fact that the show was now a "Married Peoples" show, so in certain respects, I was angry at its popularity, but it was really more about the effects that the popularity had on the show.

I guess it's somewhat similar to the Pan and Scan explosion on DVD. Due to the popularity of DVD, Fullscreen exploded because the popularity pulled in people who like fullscreen.

Thank god they still make widescreen DVD's, but if they stopped making WS and only made FS (to target the large market of fullscreen lovers) we'd ALL be cursing the popularity of the DVD.