Falling further out of the loop

[seanofjapan]

I'm doubly cursed.

I'm in my 40s and I've spent most of my adult life living in Japan. So whenever I talk to a 20 year old from the US, I'm never sure if my lack of familiarity with contemporary pop culture that they know is because I'm old or if its because I have been physically distant from North American society for so long.

I'm a university professor who teaches mostly exchange students, so this is an almost daily conversation I have with myself. My pop culture references are only current to about the year 2000, which is actually before most members of the first year students were even born now.