How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

One of the pieces of advice for young adult writers that I've seen bandied about on the internet is to get in tune with the "youth" culture. Watch what they watch, listen to what they listen to, and your books will become more realistic and appealing to them. But I think that if you have to hear this piece of advice, maybe you're not supposed to be a young adult author at all. I don't listen to My Chemical Romance and Miley Cyrus because the "young people" do it. I listen because I like them. I don't watch MTV in order to know what's down with the "youth." I do it because I like it. My taste overlaps with that of my (intended) readers naturally. I don't choke down pills of their pop culture like medicine--I devour them of my own volition, and would whether or not I was writing. Two things: (1) I don't only watch stuff 14 year olds watch. I like a lot of different things. I like Frontline, for example, which I doubt a