<p>Well put, Ketty.</p>
<p>While students do often discuss things that are academic (or relate non-academic things to academic things), I don’t think they often extend outside of the realm of accepted vernacular. I think Ketty and la montagne point out that when you have a set of common experiences with friends, you have a basis on which to place comments.</p>
<p>For Chicago kids, that basis is core, and so when somebody makes a Durkheim reference, everybody who took Self for sosc (a lot of people) get it. It doesn’t become an “I know Durkheim and you don’t, muhahahahaha.”</p>
<p>As I mentioned before, my less academic but more cultured friends pull in things left and right-- they seem to see every movie, every play, every art exhibit-- and I see how that knowledge display becomes exhausting after a while, but I think the same thing about friends who talk about how much alcohol they drink and how many friends they spend time with. I feel like everybody has the right to be a little self-centered every once in a while and get by without complaint, but it’s the kids who don’t get beyond that who can become irksome.</p>