I joined a fancy pants gym this week. At my new fitness center (as opposed to my old Parks and Rec gymnasium, which for $72 a year, I had access to two very loud cardio machines and a view of a concrete wall), I am now in stimulation overload. Eight flat screens dangle from the lofty ceilings, and each 2010-edition elliptical machine comes with its own built-in television and a dozen channels - yes, a piece of equipment that lets me enjoy my most lazy pastime with my most active one. Thanks technology!

As I glided in ellipses over and over again yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice the programming preferences of my fellow gym-goers. At 2 in the afternoon, the rows of premium cardio equipment are primarily occupied by women in the 40ish-plus age range, many of whom do not want to be constrained by the machine’s limited channel options. Some of these women will instead ask an employee for a remote to change one of the cable-ready screens up ahead.

The top choice of this demographic: the Food Network. Runner-up: HGTV. One woman opted for a show dedicated to bathroom renovations.

I’m not here to judge anyone’s programming choices; quite the opposite. I’d like to applaud how shameless age can make a person. That middle-aged women in her “Big Up in Brooklyn” tee-shirt doesn’t care what anyone thinks about the counter-productivity of watching a show about roasting pork tenderloin while trying to burn off her breakfast bacon.  

She like what she likes; it doesn’t even cross her mind to care what anyone else thinks about what she likes. 

I was at a party recently where I began discussing the genius that is “Jersey Shore” and this twentysomething looked at me as if to say “Really? How could you watch that crap?” Eventually she admitted to watching it too. “I know, I shouldn’t. It’s terrible,” she said. 

I was once her, an urban twentysomething who at some point, felt the need to rebel against the box by which she was raised. I’m sure she’ll take up reading and NPR and will pretend to know nothing about “Glee” or Taylor Momsen. But one day, somewhere in her thirties, she’ll wake up and realize that she’ll never be that upstanding, mature person with convictions that she always hoped she’d be. 

She’ll instead align her workout schedule with the new season of the “Real World/Road Rules Challenge” and not give a shit.