My roomate is driving me nuts...how much MTV can a grown man watch

[hobo_baggins]

My roomate is so addicted to MTV and the E channel and VH1, and reality tv shows, they're making me insane. He won't watch anything else. I know more about justin timberlake and jessica simpson that someone my age should ever know.

How can I teach this guy to get some taste. His tv shows suck, his movies suck, his music sucks, he just sucks...I know i should be more tolerant, but somethings gotta give here, I never thought i'd be friends with someone so mindless that they embrace the lowest of the lows constantly.

[lakemonster11]

1. That sucks.

How old is this guy?

[hobo_baggins]

2. hes 24

[0rganism]

3. Well how old is he?

Are you guys in college or what? Some college kids are incredibly immature -- especially frosh.

You cannot "teach" taste, taste is always acquired. One way is through exposure: make better TV, movies, and music available to him and desirable via your own enthusiasm. Another way is through radical paradigm shift: drop acid with him and let him watch/listen to his bullshit for an hour, say you want to see/hear something else, then put on the Prokofiev or whatever it is you consider more tasteful. LSD is a great eye-opener for absolutes, such as what is lame and what is un-lame. This path, of course, assumes that his poor taste is due primarily to ignorance rather than choice.

On the other hand, maybe you can just let him slide into his morass of pop-culture manure. No one appointed you the arbiter of someone else's "good" taste; perhaps he's found that the secret to making his own life bearable is to immerse himself in the hollow emptiness of the consumption-driven void. It could be his own Zen consciousness expressing itself. You could even try appreciating his preferences instead of trying to "better" them. Failing that, just put on the headphones and live your own life. Move out if you have to do so for your own sanity. Just because someone is your close friend doesn't mean you can stand to live with him/her. I've seen more friendships destroyed by escalating them beyond their capabilities than I would care to count.

Well, that's my take anyway. I've had a lot of room- and house-mates in my time; some were easier to live with than others. And I'm sure some of them liked living with me more than others. Good luck with it, however it turns out.

[hobo_baggins]

5. I'm not trying to change his taste for him, im changing it for me

But the LSD thing is probably a good idea, but I think he has issues growing up. Anytime I say something about his terrible music and crap, he says im just a crotchety old man whos not open to new ideas......

[jmm]

4. You think he constantly embraces the lowest of the lows?

Trust me it gets worse then MTV, E, and VH1. My older sister likes Toby Keith and Ja Rule. Atleast I don't have to live with her but I do get to live above a guy who use to only listen to the Ying Yang Twins but now alternates between them and Little Bow Wow.

[hobo_baggins]

6. Well yeah, Toby Keith is pretty low

I used to know a guy who absolutely loved the milkshake song, and would play it and dance for people...just fucking weird...

[henslee]

7. He must be Canadian.

[Canadian Socialist]

8. Hey! Don't make me alert on your ass!

We don't even get MTV in Canada... :hippie:

[henslee]

9. Sowwy for da wisekwack.