Teens and Pop Culture

Taking the teen pop culture quiz was an eye opener for me, even though my score wasn’t spectacular (12/26) I found out that I knew more about teen pop culture than I had initially believed. Having just started working with a group of high school students earlier that day I had been actively thinking about how to forge relationships with them and encourage them to interact with each other on their nerve filled first day of a summer program. In the past I have found that pop culture is the easiest way to form such relationships as it can stir up instant conversation and debate. The degree to which a librarian or educator is aware of what the children they serve and interact with is a vital part of creating positive relationships with them. Working with young adults definitely requires you to have a basic grasp of popular culture such as music and movies even though you don’t have to experience them all first hand. Having the basic foundation allows one to connect with the teens and create an easy dialogue. This helps to make young patrons much more comfortable with librarians and more willing to ask for help than they would be from a more serious “scary looking” librarian. I find that having these two way discussions with kids allows them to relate to you on a much more personal level and can make you look much “cooler” than trying to prove you know a lot about teen pop culture.