It's amazing to me how creepily puerile our civic discourse has become. Today, former unconfirmedbythesenate ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, told a gathering of conservatives that maybe the Soviet Union would nuke an American city. Then he suggested "Chicago"--and all the conservatives cheered and laughed.
This follows closely on the California mayor's postcard showing watermelons growing on the White House lawn and the NY Post's vile chimpanzee cartoon.
I signed up with Facebook last summer just for fun. About a week later, I noticed that the communicative style of Facebookers included lots of teen-age style insults: "Crocs make you look like a dumb ass." So I inactivated my membership. I reactivated it this week when someone sent me a Facebook message, but I've discovered the twisted remarks are still plentiful. For example, I saw this message "99 things you should have heard of by now...unless you're a loser, or old, or something...."
Or "Take our IQ test"...and below that, "Two people in (my state) think you're dumb."
Is this how people talk to each other now? Is this why adults in responsible public positions are talking like demented adolescents? Katie Couric's "There's the white guy."
It sounds like pure Facebook mentality to me.
I've been invited to join facebook by 3 or 4 people I know, but have never taken them up on their offer. Can't be bothered with such rubbish. What's wrong with email, not fast enuf for them? Huh!
ReplyDeleteShammy, good for you for holding out. i've also discovered that most of the games on facebook are geared toward getting you to give them your cell phone number. a facebook friend sends you a quiz, like "What kind of dog are you?" or "What kind of scent (perfume) are you? Take our quiz..." and at the end of the quiz, if you want the answer, you need to type in your cell phone number. that requires a certain level of gullibity, don'tcha think?
ReplyDeleteThe advertising certainly seems aimed at the high school crowd.
ReplyDeleteI finally knuckled under to my son's prodding (he's almost 40, so not in that particular demographic) and signed up about a month ago. What irritates me is not so much the level of discourse as the disjointed nature of communication. The whole system seems to have been put together by someone with severe ADHD to show the rest of us what it's like.
ha...leave it to you, sherwood, to put a fine point on it!! never thought of ADHD, but it fits.....
ReplyDeleteGosh do I feel left out. No one ever invited me to join..at least not urgently. My daughter talked about it. I think I got some kinda e-mail about it a while back. But--I've got enough ADHD going on right in my own head. And I can't keep up with the commitments I have and value. Can't fathom adding (badly, incompletely) more.
ReplyDeleteCat