Maybe you don't listen to chart music. You avoid whatever is trending, prefer independent films, have your own very specific taste, and would never describe yourself as a "pop culture person." Congratulations—you might be Pop-Shy. In this interactive discussion and workshop, Ben will challenge the idea that any of us can really stand outside popular culture. Through debates, games and thought experiments, we'll explore what actually makes something "pop," why being alternative can become an identity of its own, and how yesterday's rebellious subculture—from streetwear to craft coffee—so often becomes tomorrow's mainstream.

We'll also explore how algorithms have completely changed what "mainstream" even means. Two people can live in the same city, use the same internet and inhabit almost entirely different cultural worlds—each carefully shaped by recommendations, communities and their own personal taste. We'll examine how trends travel between cultures, how the things we consume become signals about who we are, and why even the culture we dislike can help define us. Come prepared to move around, make choices, defend your questionable cultural tastes and perhaps discover that you're much more entangled with pop culture than you'd like to admit. Because whether we're embracing it, remixing it or proudly rejecting it, we're all helping to create it.

也许你不听榜单音乐，回避热门趋势，偏爱独立电影，有自己极其独特的品味，并且绝不会称自己为“流行文化爱好者”。恭喜你——你可能患有“流行羞耻症”（Pop-Shy）。在这场互动讨论与工作坊中，Ben 将挑战“我们可以完全置身于流行文化之外”这一观念。通过辩论、游戏和思想实验，我们将探索究竟是什么让事物变得“流行”，为什么“另类”本身也会成为一种身份认同，以及昨日的叛逆亚文化（从街头服饰到精品咖啡）为何如此频繁地成为明日的主流。

我们还将探讨算法如何彻底改变了“主流”的定义。两个人可以住在同一座城市，使用同一个互联网，却身处截然不同的文化世界——每一个世界都由推荐算法、社群和个人品味精心塑造。我们将审视趋势如何在不同文化间流动，我们消费的内容如何成为定义自我的信号，以及为何即便是我们讨厌的文化也在反向定义着我们。请准备好动起来、做选择、为你那些“ questionable ”的文化品味辩护，并或许会发现你与流行文化的纠葛远比你想承认的要深。因为无论我们是拥抱它、重构它还是自豪地拒绝它，我们都在参与创造它。