Don’t Be Yesterday

The fear isn’t missing what’s good—it’s being behind. Being the person who still cares about what everyone’s already moved past, who hasn’t updated their taste in time. That’s what drives lists like this. Monthly reports on what matters, what you should drop before someone notices you still care about it.

Some of these have aged into comedy. Karen Gillan’s still great, just in ways these people couldn’t have predicted. Zelda, forever forthcoming. The obsession with specific snacks and body rituals that felt profound for exactly one week. But the real thing here is the anxiety—that monthly check: am I current? Am I on the right side of the divide?

The list format lets you off the hook. You don’t explain what you love or why; you just stack it against what’s supposedly out and hope you’re on the winning side. It’s permission structures, basically. Someone else deciding what’s cool so you don’t have to risk being wrong.

The specificity is what gets me. Girls who don’t love boobs listed under OUT—so horny, so 2010, so confidently absurd. These weren’t even arguments; they were vibes. Things that felt important for a week in a particular place. The list was the point. Staying current was the whole game.

I don’t know if I’m over it or just old enough that the fear of being outdated doesn’t land anymore. Maybe that’s the same thing.