Uses Of Pop Culture

You understand the uses of popular culture when they decide to name a server Bamm-Bamm instead of lets say Macavity. I would have never got the Flintstones reference but the T.S. Elliot allusion would have made me smile.

So much better if there was another person in the room who also remembered the mystery cat. It makes for a small but meaningful moment of coworker bonding. It takes the edge off a serious discussion around the degrading performance stats of a production server that has been getting the boss undesirable attention from his management.

Cultural reference points change by place and time. You become aware of the flow of both relative to you when you do not understand references to popular icons. You lean on others to help you navigate a varied landscape of pop-culture, understand key landmarks and their significance. When all else fails there is Google and Wikipedia. I think both generation and culture gap will become things of the past at least in terms of awareness. As long as you are connected, you can get caught up.

All you miss is the 15 seconds of impromptu camaraderie when the tech guy says "The jobs on Bamm-Bamm failed three times this week" and everyone else chuckles thinking "Flintstones" instead of making a note to pitch getting Bamm-Bamm decommissioned.