Your life sucks and you're a whiny emo bitch.
Not you specifically of course. I'd never say that.
Found via the Accordion Guy (I'm cribbing lots of stuff from him lately, it seems), I present 7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable. Go read. It made me chuckle. And also weep bitter tears, but I did chuckle once or twice too.
Quick summary: We are embarking on an age when, thanks to teh interwebs, we can live our small, isolated lives in tiny, insular, online communities of people who don't challenge us and can't communicate with us in any meaningful way. The fun's in the details I'm glossing over, though, because that's not really anything new in itself. Seriously. Go read.
Of course, you could claim that lots of things are killing our sense of community with our neighbours. I heard it once claimed that air conditioners brought about the death of Western society, by killing off front porch culture and sealing people up in their air-tight houses where they can't even hear anyone anymore, leaving to them to wallow in their small and shrinking little worlds. Of course it's not just teh intarwebs that's dooming the world. But he makes some good points.
- Annoying strangers become annoying friends. And that's a good thing. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I tend to keep myself a bit distant from people like my neighbours or coworkers because I'm assuming we really don't have that much in common. And we probably don't. But so what? Isn't it maybe better to have a diverse group of friends? And as much as I'd like to have a girlfriend who was into Doctor Who and anime and computers and all that crap, I'm at a definite statistical disadvantage in that respect. So if I really don't want to die alone (and I keep saying I don't, but sometimes I'm not so sure), I should probably diversify. At least a little.
- Criticism. He suggests that you can't criticize online friends. And if all your friends are basically like you, you probably don't want to criticize them anyway. And honestly, I kinda wish people would tell me I'm being an idiot sometimes. And why. Not arbitrarily, of course—I actually have to be doing something stupid. But I do stupid things more frequently than I'd like to admit, so it shouldn't be too hard. Maybe I cover myself well. Maybe people don't want to hurt my feelings. On the converse, would people like me to criticize them more? 'Cuz I totally can. I just don't without some sort of implicit or explicit permission. I'm nice like that. "Nice" in this sense being the more wish-washy, inoffensive sort of nice. Maybe I should tell friends they're being dumb sometimes. And why. To their face, though. Not online. Because it doesn't work online.
- Outrage. This is one thing that's really pissing me off about the Internet right now. The reverberating chamber of political blogs and YouTube quips really isn't getting us any closer to The Truth, or a solution to problems, or anything real. It's a waste of time and energy.
- It's so easy to ditch people online. This is why I can't take online dating seriously. And even when it's good, where's the intimacy in that chatty email convo? Was there ever any? Does it really mean anything? And I mean, sure it sounds good to be able to simply block some stalker's MSN and filter their emails, but how many stalkers are out there, really? I'm probably not in a position where I can make sweeping statements about dating stuff, but I find it all so phony. The real world is just better when it comes to dealing with people. Yes, you have less control, but when you start to look at the bigger picture, maybe that's not a good thing after all.
Food for thought, anyway.
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