How do I fit in social situations with people I have little in common with?

Hi everyone. I always feel like I don’t fit in with my generation and kids my age. I think it was because I grew up in a very socially conservative and strict household where education was stressed very hard. I really noticed this in high school. I had a much easier time speaking to adults about current news than small talk with high schoolers. I think this also happened because I spent my life reading books, reading the news, and watching sports. I never really spent hours a day on social media, never had after-school social interaction with kids my age, and never kept up with popular culture.

I remember a time in middle school lunch when a kid wanted to prove how much of an unpopular loser I am and told me to explain what YOLO means. I never heard of the word and only guessed the first 2 letters. I remember how embarrassing it was when my classmates laughed. But we were all smart kids in our grade’s higher math class. I only realize now why they know it, and I didn’t.

Another example is one of my classmates from high school. During the later years of high school, he always wanted to talk to me about random things. Even though I didn’t want to speak to him, I would just be nice and polite. The weirdest part is how he would see me on my phone and constantly accuse me of watching porn videos. I had no idea what he was talking about. One time he comes and says something like “Damn. How much porn do you watch?” This is all in school, class, and public with others. It made me so uncomfortable, and he told a few classmates that I was always watching porn and that I was a porn addict. 4 years later, I think I finally figured out what he meant because I saw a Tiktok video that hinted that a person lowering their phone brightness means it’s time to watch porn videos. I lower my phone brightness to save battery, and somehow he understood that I was a porn addict.

There are so many more examples of me not understanding what people my age are speaking about. Many times I don’t even understand the slang they use. Some examples are “finna” and “good looks.” Do I need to spend hours on social media and urbandictionary to better communicate with college kids my age? Thankfully, I will graduate college soon. Hopefully, I better fit in with adults.