That someone out there would point out, you do not know something, something which is widely popular and somehow you missed it, is a great social fear we live by today.
The fear of missing out on something, snubs some part of you that prevents you from coming out honestly and laying your guts out in the open. There simply is only a negative social incentive for you to be honest about your unawareness, because of the fear.
Like try telling someone that you have never heard of this thing called GoT everyone is talking about. Or Pokemon Go, or the Apple’s latest iPhone model. “Do you live under a rock?,” they will say.
Trust me, there for sure is someone out there who has never heard of it.
In fact, as the comic above (XKCD 1053) points out, there are at least 10,000 tiny arm-sized people who have just come into the world today, in just the United States of America, who clearly do not know that new thing you know about. Then there are little kids who are automatically insulated from the average pop culture trend. There are sick people in hospital rooms who have other things to worry about, tribes living in the forest untouched by the modern air, old people who don’t care about your new age crap, blind people who have not seen a thing ever in their lives, poor African children who are more worried about finding something to eat today, and the list goes on…
The fact that there indeed are also perfectly average humans who have missed something that you think is known by everyone else in the world, is a hard one to realize. Appreciating that fact takes a wiser man.
If someone you find has not heard of something, assume this: This person you are dealing with, knows at least one thing you have never heard of, for every one thing that you have heard of and they have not. Maybe two for every one thing, or more! Be humble because for all the time you were entertaining yourself, catching up with hundreds of hours of GoT, or catching ’em all, this person was experiencing some other, probably a more meaningful, thing.
The first thing to rise over your evil derisive self is to try and not let the feeling of shock appear when you see that someone does not know about something. Hopefully, that will automatically pull you back from coming out and ridiculing the “ignorant” person.
Or rather, even be understanding enough to celebrate ignorance and “get some Diet Coke and Mentos from the grocery,” to demonstrate the Coke Geyser. At least you will have some fun!
So, please bookmark this and the next time you hear someone throw even a hint of ridicule towards you for not knowing the hot trending topic of the day, please point them to this article.