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You know something, I sometimes feel quite outdated. Like, for instance, when everybody 'round me jumps into a meme and I just scratch my head and think, "And what's the point?" and can't even understand what's the fun of doing something senseless simply 'cause everybody else does it.
Or like when some friends of mine say how cool and awesome and amazing and useful are internet-based social networks, because they've got 458398348 people befriended in Facebook, including the person they met in a bus stop in August 27, 1989, and never saw again since.
Or when they get in Twitter and spam everybody saying what they are doing at that very moment. "I'm reading an e-mail." "I'm in the 5th floor in the elevator."I took a crap and can tell you how long my turds are"...
Or when everybody looks at me with eyes open wide when I tell'em I don't have a gMail account. Or when I say I'm not interested in an iPod. Or when I tell'em I play videogames once per month as much...
I'd LOVE to feel interested by all those things. Really, honestly, but I can't. So I can't enjoy that kind of stuff not even if I was paid to do it. But I can't, so I feel hopelessly outdated. :b
Or like when some friends of mine say how cool and awesome and amazing and useful are internet-based social networks, because they've got 458398348 people befriended in Facebook, including the person they met in a bus stop in August 27, 1989, and never saw again since.
Or when they get in Twitter and spam everybody saying what they are doing at that very moment. "I'm reading an e-mail." "I'm in the 5th floor in the elevator."I took a crap and can tell you how long my turds are"...
Or when everybody looks at me with eyes open wide when I tell'em I don't have a gMail account. Or when I say I'm not interested in an iPod. Or when I tell'em I play videogames once per month as much...
I'd LOVE to feel interested by all those things. Really, honestly, but I can't. So I can't enjoy that kind of stuff not even if I was paid to do it. But I can't, so I feel hopelessly outdated. :b
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Meh, don't sweat it. If something doesn't interest you, it doesn't interest you... nothing wrong with not caring about keeping up with the latest and greatest techno-toys. Personally I often have to be kicked and screaming into getting some newfangled 'upgrade' (I deliberately bought a laserdisc player right when DVD was bursting onto the scene). I don't Twitter, I don't blog, I don't text people, I don't have gMail, I don't own an Xbox or a PS3 or a DS or even a Gameboy. Why? 'Cause I don't care to. So, you aren't alone. :3
I know the feeling. I mean, I don't really even know what a meme is, even though I've seen a few. I don't have G-mail, I don't use facebook (and don't care to). While I like vid games, I don't feel the need to get a new game every week, I don't have any of the next gen consoles (nor did I own a previous gen one) and really don't want to.
I don't have an ipod either.
As the others have said, don't feel bad about being yourself.
I don't have an ipod either.
As the others have said, don't feel bad about being yourself.
Do you feel outdated? Or do you feel, instead, alive?
I realized more than 20 years ago that I could never keep up with pop culture... and so I chose to spend my time with everyone and everything I loved, instead. And if I find myself completely in the dark when people discuss a TV show that will soon be off the air and forgotten, or a new blockbuster film that will fade beyond recollection by next year... so what?
Given several thousand years of human culture, why should we be forced to focus only on the passing fads of today? Art that was meaningful to the ancient Greeks, to Elizabethans and Jacobeans, to Europeans of the 19th Century, can often speak to us with greater clarity and resonance and passion than the "latest thing."
You're not alone, by any means.
Mark
I realized more than 20 years ago that I could never keep up with pop culture... and so I chose to spend my time with everyone and everything I loved, instead. And if I find myself completely in the dark when people discuss a TV show that will soon be off the air and forgotten, or a new blockbuster film that will fade beyond recollection by next year... so what?
Given several thousand years of human culture, why should we be forced to focus only on the passing fads of today? Art that was meaningful to the ancient Greeks, to Elizabethans and Jacobeans, to Europeans of the 19th Century, can often speak to us with greater clarity and resonance and passion than the "latest thing."
You're not alone, by any means.
Mark
Coincidentally enough, I came across a recent article by British commentator, Robert Fisk, who mentioned Thucydides, who chronicled the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides said he would be happy "if these words of mine are judged useful by those who want to understand clearly the events which happened in the past and which (human nature being what it is) will, at some time or other and in much the same ways, be repeated in the future." How right he was.
Regarding the Athenians' attempt to invade and occupy Sicily, the old Greek wrote: "The Athenians ... became more enthusiastic than ever ... it was now thought that the expedition was an absolutely safe thing. There was a passion for the enterprise which affected everyone alike ... The result of this excessive enthusiasm of the majority was that the few who actually were opposed to the expedition were afraid of being thought unpatriotic if they voted against it, and therefore kept quiet."
Continuing this line, Fisk observes that, "For those who want to compare Bush's early abandonment of the war in Afghanistan for a new adventure in Iraq, try Nicias again, who warned that 'in going to Sicily you are leaving many enemies behind you, and you apparently want to make new ones there and have them also on your hands ... there are so many (Sicilians) and they live so far off that it would be very difficult to govern them. It is useless to go against people who, even if conquered, could not be controlled ... My opinion is, too, that Sicily, as it is at present, is not a danger to us ...'.
"No, Sicily had no weapons of mass destruction, but the Athenians eagerly set off to military disaster. Had Bush heard of Thucydides? Did Blair have a dim remembrance from his schooldays? Any thoughts, Senator Obama, you who voted 'No'? Oh, hell – just send a copy to Sarah Palin. On a clear day she could probably see Sparta from Athens."
As Mr. T. observed, history often repeats itself.
Regarding the Athenians' attempt to invade and occupy Sicily, the old Greek wrote: "The Athenians ... became more enthusiastic than ever ... it was now thought that the expedition was an absolutely safe thing. There was a passion for the enterprise which affected everyone alike ... The result of this excessive enthusiasm of the majority was that the few who actually were opposed to the expedition were afraid of being thought unpatriotic if they voted against it, and therefore kept quiet."
Continuing this line, Fisk observes that, "For those who want to compare Bush's early abandonment of the war in Afghanistan for a new adventure in Iraq, try Nicias again, who warned that 'in going to Sicily you are leaving many enemies behind you, and you apparently want to make new ones there and have them also on your hands ... there are so many (Sicilians) and they live so far off that it would be very difficult to govern them. It is useless to go against people who, even if conquered, could not be controlled ... My opinion is, too, that Sicily, as it is at present, is not a danger to us ...'.
"No, Sicily had no weapons of mass destruction, but the Athenians eagerly set off to military disaster. Had Bush heard of Thucydides? Did Blair have a dim remembrance from his schooldays? Any thoughts, Senator Obama, you who voted 'No'? Oh, hell – just send a copy to Sarah Palin. On a clear day she could probably see Sparta from Athens."
As Mr. T. observed, history often repeats itself.
Might as well ask that of anyone who posts to message boards.
Simply put, what you said in your second paragraph reminded me of something I read very recently:
"Prose chroniclers [i.e., modern-day reporters -TK] are less interested in telling the truth than in catching the attention of their public, whose authorities cannot be checked." -Thucydides
Seems he knew about Bill O'Reilly centuries before Mr. "Fair and Balance" was born. I'd say ol' "Thu" does indeed "speak to us with greater clarity and resonance and passion than the 'latest thing.'" Don't you think?
Simply put, what you said in your second paragraph reminded me of something I read very recently:
"Prose chroniclers [i.e., modern-day reporters -TK] are less interested in telling the truth than in catching the attention of their public, whose authorities cannot be checked." -Thucydides
Seems he knew about Bill O'Reilly centuries before Mr. "Fair and Balance" was born. I'd say ol' "Thu" does indeed "speak to us with greater clarity and resonance and passion than the 'latest thing.'" Don't you think?
If you're looking for a fight, I'm not your man.
For one thing, I've read Fisk for a long time now (Pity the Nation came out, what, 20 years ago?) and I have great respect and admiration for his work: he seems an honest man in a field poisoned by governmental and corporate spin.
For another, as a non-American, I have no experience and therefore no opinion of Bill O'Reilly and similar local media figures; they come and go.
And finally, this is not so much a message board as a personal journal... and not one of mine. I would be more than willing to discuss politics on one of my own; but here, where the topic was hardly political to begin with, I would hesitate.
Mark
For one thing, I've read Fisk for a long time now (Pity the Nation came out, what, 20 years ago?) and I have great respect and admiration for his work: he seems an honest man in a field poisoned by governmental and corporate spin.
For another, as a non-American, I have no experience and therefore no opinion of Bill O'Reilly and similar local media figures; they come and go.
And finally, this is not so much a message board as a personal journal... and not one of mine. I would be more than willing to discuss politics on one of my own; but here, where the topic was hardly political to begin with, I would hesitate.
Mark
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