I just don't like popular/mainstream stuff

[Lady Lucifer]

I went to a nerd meet up group the other day and it was awkward because I'm just not into what the "cool kids' are into. Wanted to know if any other aspies have this problem.

The fandoms I was asked about was anime of any kind-I don't consider myself an anime fan per se. Espically with the particular titles I like. I've recently started rewatching Naruto, I'm hesitant about Boruto as I'm not a huge fan of the pairings (SAKUSASU...WHAT?) I'm thinking if I like Shippuden, mabey give Boruto a chance. But I've still got a long ways to go. (Still on Search for Tsunade. I've been on a hiatus for the last month. Forum, video editing, real life stuff, etc)

Other animes I like are very low key, with the acception of Madoka Magica. Those low key titles are Negima (the original one), Peach Girl, Fruits Basket and the Witch Hunter/El Cazador De La Bruja. I'm also a huge fan of this manga called Tail of the Moon as well as the Shugo Chara and Mermaid Melody manga. (not a fan of the animes)

I liked Game of Thrones until I finished season three. I was so bored with it, but I hear as of recent that was supposed to be the most boring season. I'll give it a second chance. (Its on Hulu, right...?)

I don't read DC or Marvel comic books, so those are out. I have some Buffy and Tomb Raider comics, but I've only read bits and peices of them. (Buffy comics are a bit....disappointing)

I'm a huge fan of Life is Strange, but I have no desire to play the prequel. (I saw the GTLive cast playthrough of it and it looked awful) I also love Before Dawn. I'm also a fan of Tomb Raider 2013. I haven't played Rise of Tomb Raider as it was only recently released for mac, but either way my mac dosen't like running games on it for some reason. I also like sims.

I consider myself a Fannibal but not in the TV show context. I like the movies (except Hannibal, the sequel film, was awful.) Didn't like the TV show becuase NBC never had the rights to all of the charcters from the canon source (Clarice and Buffalo Bill for example) The series was all over the place. I didn't like the new story line. Everything was so bleh. I fell asleep in the middle of season two. Hannibal Rising is my favorite out of the four, as much as I love Silence of the Lambs, I never cried that much during a film. (Except with Salo, Showgirls, and Girl Next Door 2007, all great movies BTW)

I like Disney, but not after 2008. Didn't like Frozen or Moana. Big Hero Six was okay, nothing that memorable except for the adorable Baymax. Haven't seen a lot of movies after 2008 now that I think about it.

I like certain Star Wars charcters but can't follow the fandom as a whole.

Lets see other fandoms I like...RWBY, House MD, Buffy and Hunger Games. Only RWBY is still airing. The other three are kinda outdated. I also binged all of Aggritsuko yesterday, which I loved.

I'm kinda lame like that, what about you? Do you fit in with the nerd mainstream or do you float your own boat?

 

[pamelaperejil]

I'm not sure I have my own style. I think most of what seems like my style is copied.

 

[Progster]

Do you fit in with the nerd mainstream or do you float your own boat?

If nerd = anime, certain TV shows/movies, Disney, then no, I don't fit into nerd culture at all, I float my own boat. I watch documentaries and old TV shows, and listen to non-mainstream music.

 

[Sloth]

I was a tiny bit confused about what you meant. Are you saying you didn't fit in with the "mainstream" nerds (if that's even a thing), or that you do fit in with them but don't fit in with non-nerd mainstream. I think the stuff you listed seems like it should be plenty enough to qualify you for any nerd group and if not then I guess I have no clue what the word means anymore , and a lot of those things definitely have very extensive fanbases. I think maybe why you may have been assumed to have been there because of anime primarily is due to stereotypes about girl nerds .

As for me, I would definitely say that I can check mark a lot of the boxes, and I love both more mainstream stuff and more obscure stuff equally:

Gaming? Check (I also watch a lot of livestreams)
Anime? Check. (especially these last couple of years)
Movies? Check. (even have taken multiple cinema history classes)
Sci-Fi? Check. (Some movies I love were the old Blade Runner, and Brazil)
Books? Check (although I guess that is no longer what a nerd is about)
Comics? Check (although I don't read them).
Pixar/Disney/Dreamworks prior to a certain date? Check. (haven't even watched the recent ones)
Old Star Wars? Check. (even read a lot of the extended universe stuff lol)
Trivia? Check.
Too much time on Internet? Check.

At the same time there are some unforgivable big ones I haven't gotten around to watching yet. For example, haven't seen Avengers, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, or Breaking Bad .

Since I've previously always been anti-social, I've never before went to a meetup or group for any of this stuff. Now that I'm trying to be more social, however, I might reconsider and try one out.

 

[Horsegirl]

Don't try to be mainstream. Be your own person

 

[Mr Allen]

I like movies/TV shows/Disney etc, in fact I'm not like the current crop of Star Wars nerds who waste time complaining about Disney and their alleged effect on the Star Wars franchise.

In fact The Last Jedi is just premiering on Sky Cinema as I write.

 

[LearnedCoward]

I was a tiny bit confused about what you meant. Are you saying you didn't fit in with the "mainstream" nerds (if that's even a thing), or that you do fit in with them but don't fit in with non-nerd mainstream.

As for me, I don't fit in quite with the nerds or with the non-nerds. Non-nerds kinda automatically assume I'm a nerd, but nerds know I'm not one of them.

Gaming? Check (I also watch a lot of livestreams)

I'm a board game geek and former RPGer, but I don't touch video games at all.

Anime? Check. (especially these last couple of years)

I can't stand anime.

Movies? Check. (even have taken multiple cinema history classes)

I like a lot of the older stuff, because that's what I grew up with. I'm not as much of a classic cinema buff as some of my friends, but I like it a lot more than most people do.

Not sure if my interest in classic cinema would make me a nerd, though.

Sci-Fi? Check. (Some movies I love were the old Blade Runner, and Brazil)

I got into sci-fi relatively late in life. I like sci-fi movies okay, but sci-fi is my go-to genre when I can't think of what to read.

I can't stand fantasy though.

Books? Check (although I guess that is no longer what a nerd is about)

I read about four books a week. Many of these are sci-fi, but I read books across all genres.

I agree though, it's not what being a nerd is about anymore.

Comics? Check (although I don't read them).

A real nerd would never call them "comics" unless you're talking about the stuff in the Sunday papers. You probably mean graphic novels.

I'm ambivalent toward them. I don't mind them, but don't go out of my way to read them either.

Pixar/Disney/Dreamworks prior to a certain date? Check. (haven't even watched the recent ones)

I've seen a few Pixar/Disney/Dreamworks movies, but I don't go out of my way to watch them. I'll watch them if someone else wants to.

Old Star Wars? Check. (even read a lot of the extended universe stuff lol)

I haven't seen any of the Star Wars movies, except for Revenge Of The Sith, which I only saw because I went to see it with a bunch of people from work. I was not one of those people who dressed in costumes to go see it either

Trivia? Check.

Oh yeah. I love trivia. Old game shows, pub quiz trivia, Trivial Pursuit, etc. I love it all. It helps that I have a steel-trap memory for random facts and useless information.

Too much time on Internet? Check.

Totally. That's why I'm here, after all.

 

[Suzanne]

I go in the opposite direction to what is "cool" and proud of it actually.

 

[Nervous Rex]

I have some sort of weird instinct - the more popular something is, the less I want to know about it.

I don't know if I get tired of people talking about [whatever popular thing], or if I am just rejecting the go-with-the-flow behavior.

I think it's because, the more popular something is, the more I see it as "the only thing I know about it is that it's popular, and that's not a reason to like it."

Anyway, I try not to be too overt about it, because I don't want to look like a hipster.

 

[LearnedCoward]

I have some sort of weird instinct - the more popular something is, the less I want to know about it.

This is how I am with books. I'll see a book that everyone* is reading and want nothing to do with it. I've got enough books piling up in my book stack that I actually want to read. I don't want to make special room for it just because everybody else is reading it.

*everyone white and upper-middle-class, that is. Think Elena Ferrante or Fredrik Backman. Or (gag!) think Jonathan Franzen or David Foster Wallace. What about Meg Wollitzer? Naming such a dry piece of crap book The Interestings is blatant false advertising if there ever was. But I digress.

 

[Graphin]

People seem to automatically take popularity as a major decision factor. Popular things automatically give me a worse impression, I think it's because i dislike herd think behaviour, but it's quick to find out why people like certain popular things and decide to give it a proper look. And not many of my preferences align with the popular.
BUT I won't hesitate to choose popular things if I think it's right for me, and often i have to do. Wether i like it in the end is the most important thing

In terms of media, from books movies and series I "missed" a lot of "mandatory" things, enjoyed some popular things, and truly enjoyed some not very popular things. And i don't have a tv.
The only anime (later manga) i fully watched and love is made in abyss, i tried many others, this is so different I would never compare it to other anime.

 

[Lady Lucifer]

If nerd = anime, certain TV shows/movies, Disney, then no, I don't fit into nerd culture at all, I float my own boat. I watch documentaries and old TV shows, and listen to non-mainstream music.

What kind of documentaries? I need some new conspiracy theory, sex and/or true crime ones. I'm a huge youtube documentary nerd. I've seen almost everything from Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple to Allister Crowley's Sex Magik.

I stopped listening to mainstream music I think sometime in 2012 becuase it all started sounding the same. (Though I hold Britney Spears near and dear to my heart) Same with mainstream metal....its just boring.

I was a tiny bit confused about what you meant. Are you saying you didn't fit in with the "mainstream" nerds (if that's even a thing), or that you do fit in with them but don't fit in with non-nerd mainstream. I think the stuff you listed seems like it should be plenty enough to qualify you for any nerd group and if not then I guess I have no clue what the word means anymore , and a lot of those things definitely have very extensive fanbases. I think maybe why you may have been assumed to have been there because of anime primarily is due to stereotypes about girl nerds

The most popular fandoms in this current age is stuff like Avengers, Justice Leauge, Gravity Falls, Stranger Things, etc. Stuff that I could care less about. I've been sugguested to watch Steven Universe since I do like magical girls, but I dunno....

 

[NicolePfisher]

You aren't lame. You aren't anything. But I guess you are probably just poking fun at yourself when you say that. Anyway...

I agree completely with you're opinions on Disney. Frozen and Moana were no where near deserving of their hype, plus I am tired of Disney making these archetypical females which (and these traits do apply to men by a lesser degree) are skinny with disproportionately large heads and eyes. The theory is that these traits (the latter two) make characters more infantile and therefore more likely to capture the adoration of audiences, but really these are just the most noticeable qualities of what has turned into Disney's ubiquitous budget.

I'm not talking about budget style, I'm talking about budget. To get an idea of what I mean, consider the films "Lilo and Stitch", "Mulan", and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". During the span of these films, there were other films made with comparable budgets like "Aladin", where again you saw use of disproportionately large eyes and heads. But each film still had it's own budget and style unique to that movie and married to that movies flavor. "Mulan"s lines were simple and elegant and made for beautiful action scenes. The line work in "Lilo and Stitch" was completely round, there are few if any sharp corners in that movie which helped a movie that dealt with emotional themes such as the breaking up of families and depression keep itself child friendly. In the film "Atlantis", there were actually quite a few sharp edges, even on the tips of character's boxy fingers. All these movies, to this day are as unique an memorable as their budgets.

I just can't say the same for films like Frozen an Moana. Since the universe in Frozen and Tangled are connected, I can let the issue of using the same budget go, but Moana just goes to show that Disney is not focused on making unique budgets anymore. Big Hero Six and Brave were some of the last cgi film I can remember by Disney that actually bore some degree of unique style.

The problem goes beyond budget though. Films like Moana and Frozen didn't feel underwhelming because of the way they looked, but because of their lack of good stories. So my issue with budget seems to be a symptom of disney's issue with tells new stories that have had a good deal of work and consideration put into them.

 

[Progster]

What kind of documentaries? I need some new conspiracy theory, sex and/or true crime ones.

Mainly science and technology, nature, travel, medicine, food and nutrition.

 

[Graphin]

So interesting to see my unpopular opinions and prefences strangely commonly align here.

 

[Mr Allen]

So interesting to see my unpopular opinions and prefences strangely commonly align here.

You don't have to worry about that, being "popular" is massively overrated IMO.

So what if you weren't down with the "cool" kids at school, I know I wasn't.

 

[Graphin]

I never implied unpopular is bad, especially in the other post i made in this thread

 

[Adora]

I have always been the same,I never got the concept of liking something just because it’s cool or my favourite thing people say is “everyone is into it” which has the opposite effect and makes me more disinterested in whatever is popular at the time,I also agree about the Disney movies,I am a fan of the classic 2d animation and my favourites are Beauty and the Beast,Cinderella and The Little Mermaid but I could never get into the newer stuff like Frozen in which I find to be overrated,i am also a Star Wars fan but I love the prequels and a lot of Star Wars fans like to attack those movies but I always enjoyed them and my husband likes the phantom menace,in high school I was bullied a lot because of how my interests were different to the kids at my school but my interests were the thing that help me get through very tough times aswell,even now I don’t fit into any fandom but I like things just because they interest me and not because it’s popular and there is nothing wrong with that.

 

[Mr Allen]

20 years ago I was kind of into Pokemon, even though it's for 12 year old kids, I had some of the Game Boy games and watched the TV show.

 

[LearnedCoward]

20 years ago I was kind of into Pokemon, even though it's for 12 year old kids

Which explains why there are now thirtysomethings into Pokemon.

You were just ahead of your time