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Saturday, April 28, 2012

Are We Living In The Age of TMI???



*"Automatic push-button remote control, Synthetic Genetics, Command your Soul!"



This entry was written AFTER some questionable photos of the gross and gory kind arrived in my email. IT was that proverbial FINAL straw!

"Automatic push-button remote control, Synthetic Genetics, Command your Soul!
Automatic push-button remote control, Synthetic Genetics, Command your Soul!"


Have we become a society of useless information hoarders and dispensers? Perhaps the answer is already apparent when you consider the speed and frequency in which we are now able to send, process and dissect data. It’s just a little daunting, overwhelming, unnecessary, and, at times, just plain monotonous. Gone are those good ole days where we were able to be reserved, to retain a bit of privacy and maintain some personal mystery.



The Enigmatic Age of Gentle Finesse and Quiet Mystique has died a quick and senseless death.

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I miss those days. I grieve those days. I yearn for the return of those lost and glorious days once more.

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Nowadays people can and often will tell you the most personal, primal, private and mundane isht about themselves… and there are others on the opposite side of a screen who will not only process it, but eat it up… with glee! I just don’t get it. Don’t the rest of us have lives to live anymore? If not, just what in hell happened to them? Why has recording and reciting our existence become so imperative? It reeks of desperation to me. Why must our every deed be broadcasted to a world audience? Why in this world should anyone be so interested in where we are, what we’re doing, and who we’re doing it with, 24/7? Why should anyone really give a damn about what you had for dinner, where and with whom?


This tediously useless, deeply trivial isht is one of the reasons why to this very day, I refuse to join Twitter and so rarely visit Facebook, much less update my page and my status on that site. Truthfully, I can’t understand why anyone would care.

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When did so many of us become such attention whores?

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No. I’m not talking about celebrities and how they roll. With celebs, maybe others ‘follow’ them to get a sense, that, no matter our stations in life, we’re all here sharing the same planet where even the famous do normal, regular, mundane things, and yes, they can be just as dull, boring and uninteresting as the rest of us. Indeed. In today’s hyper-informative world, celebs often prove themselves to be very insecure people, quick to piss off, get angry, get into feuds, fights, differences of opinions, act a fool, and this becomes mindless brain-candy for the scrutinizing public. That’s all just sad to me. Some of these privileged people really reveal themselves to be all too human: flawed, foul and yes, fucked up. And although, I have to wonder: who gives a damn … apparently millions of people do!

No. Celebrities, in general, must drink the same flavor Kool-Aid, and they believe it makes them all-important and immortal. When sycophants, groupies and others blow enough smoke up your stank ass, continually tell you, yes(!), give you gobs of free stuff in swag bags, and pay you obscene green to go some place just to be photographed and be seen, you might just develop a tendency to think your feces don’t stink.

But here, I’m actually speaking of people, just regular, ordinary people (pipe in John Legend), living pedestrian little lives, in their own prosaic little burbs. Do they also want fame so much they are willing to whore out their images, their personal business, exploit their families and their very lives in the quest of becoming demi-stars? Are they so badly wanting to feel a part of something Larger than themselves, to the point where they don't bother setting personal limitations anymore? I wonder. Why is it that they suddenly think everything they do, feel, say or think must be recorded, reported on and validated by a mess of strangers?

Don’t get it twisted. I’m not completely against the concept of social media; after all blogging is a part of it. I actually see the need and the purpose for some forms of it, especially when one wants to pimp a product, sell something, plan an event gathering, or make an announcement to a large amount of people, often social media is an excellent way to reach a target market. I’m not against the concept of like minds meeting and I’ve actually made some good friends and met a few fascinating people I would not have known otherwise if we’d not become acquainted online. So, from that perspective social media can be a very useful and fulfilling thing, both professionally and personally.

But somewhere along the way, it all went awry... and it has gone from the sublime to the truly ridic. Now, you’ve got people who set up web pages, Facebook, My Space and Twitter pages devoted solely to their pets. Their pets, who talk, carry on conversations, tweet photos, and who flash quasi-literate, demi-charming personalities all their own. Please! No need for vicious emails or PETA protests lodged against me. I’ve nothing but love for our four-legged friends and this is not a slam against any creature within the...uh-ruh... critter community. But pets? Pets with personal web pages? WTF?

Ummm… note to the reasonably sane people: if most folks don’t know you, don't know who you are, or give a good damn about you, what makes you think your PET would be any more popular or interesting? And if by chance they are deemed more popular or interesting than you, well, how sad would that be?

People of all types, strata, ages and ilk have fallen into the annoying habit of broadcasting waaaay too much of themselves, about their lives, their mates, their kids, their fams, their vacations, their pets and their shopping purchases, until it’s become more than a tad or a tidbit over-indulgent… and the result of this is the complete and utter oversaturation of the self.

Could the frequency or the infrequency of their bowel movements be too far behind?


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And please don’t get me started on the subject of cell phones.


Granted, I’m tres old skool. How is this for a concept? I actually use my phone to make occasional calls. That's it. That's all.

Wi-i-i-i-i-i-i-ild right?

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I don’t play games on it. I don’t text. I don’t take or send pics with it. I wouldn't become totally null and void, be rendered completely destroyed, left catatonic in some fetal position nor would I be unable to cope with life, should it get lost or misplaced. I don’t depend upon my phone, like a dog with a bone, Linus with his security blanket or some itchy, jittering junkie needing his fix.

But apparently, I’m nearly alone in this practice and only using a phone to make calls, when necessary, makes me somewhat archaic. Fine. I’m good. I can live with this reality. Better that, than to overuse your phone to the point where you disturb and offend others in your idle time.

Just the other day a friend of mine thought it necessary to email me and a small tribe of other people pictures from a recent emergency room visit, along with (click) shots on a stretcher, (click) headshots vogueing a sick and forlorn expression, (click) close-ups including a snotty nose, chapped lips and all … I’m like WTF?

Question: Could you not have waited until you were back home, safe and sound to share that information? Could you not have waited until you had easy access to some freaking Kleenex and some damn Clapstick?

I’m just asking… what up wid dat?

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Another person who I’ve known for a minute, felt it necessary to email this pic of a very gory–looking blood-raw and wounded arm shortly after surgery. Innnnn-tense! I damn near threw up! I just didn’t understand the purpose of sending me that madness. Call me crazy, but I’m just not a big fan of Large Gaping Wounds... in extreme close-up!!! Aiight? Personally, I don’t find that kind of thing vaguely entertaining in the least! Isn’t there such a concept as OVER-SHARING?

I mean, shouldn’t such graphic visuals come with a pre-warning or something?

It was then that I‘d finally had enough! It was necessary to let him know I was not so fascinated, nor amused. I’ve had to cuss out a few, and yes, I've gone OFF on people who think that their lives are so-o-o-o-o damned remarkable that their every activity becomes the stuff fit for some Oscar-worthy documentary.

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Have we become a society of useless information feeders? Methinks the answer is already: “yes.”

To that concept, I say this: Stop this madness!

Is there a smartphone app out there that tells folks to: GET OVER YOURSELF!?


Maybe there should be!

Hey, how about a new app called Reality Check that straight-up tells you: Put Me Down, Damn it! You’re Boring! Read a book! No! Not a Kindle version! A real BOOK! Yo! Go Outside and Breathe Some Fresh Air Without Me As Your Crutch, Your Companion and Your Adoring Mirror! Seriously. Think of Some Thing or Someone... Other Than Yourself! Trust Me! You Really Ain’t All That!


I await the day when people embrace the concept of owning a certain mystique again. I long for a time, when they leave, not a picture of their wounds and how gross they can be... or of a meal and how they discarded it… but instead, what they do leave behind is left to the IMAGINATION. This is what truly makes people interesting: the good sense to know when to remain enigmatic.

mystique-film20noir_


*
"Automatic push-button remote control, Synthetic Genetics, Command your Soul!
Automatic push-button remote control, Synthetic Genetics, Command your Soul!
Automatic push-button remote control, Synthetic Genetics, Command your Soul!
Automatic push-button remote control, Synthetic Genetics, Command your Soul!"
*







Ya smell me?


I’m just sayin’.


One.



* from Mean Machines by The Last Poets

16 comments:

Teri and her Stylish Adventure Cats said...

...I understand where you are coming from, this 'self-grandification' and people tweeting inane things like 'I'm bored' (while they are supposed to be working in the same office as me) and sharing gore that would have been private in the past.

I do blog about my cats, as they are a reflection of me, and I feel like if I help one person take better care of their cat...that makes my day...but you know that about me.

♥ CG ♥ said...

I totally understand. I wonder if the blogging trend somehow fed this? I think we'll have to hold on to our memories of personal discretion and thoughtful dialogue, my friend, I don't see this nonsense ending anytime soon :-(

Moanerplicity said...

Thanks for weighing in, Teri.

Yes, indeed. What you do w/ your blog provides a service to others. Because you truly love & care for the well-being & safety of yours & all cats, this separates you from those who are a tad too whimsical & too precious w/ giving their pets voices & soap opera-type lives.

Frankly, they tend to scare me a little.

Keep doing YOU!


One.

Moanerplicity said...

@CG:

Back in the mid-to-late-90s when technology went completely digital, little did I know it would signal an end to life & interpersonal interaction as I'd always known them to be.

This just makes me feel sad, yo.

:-(


One.

Val said...

This post, Lin, is right on time! OMG, I have thought this so many times. Almost no one leaves anything to the imagination anymore. It's a world where everyone is spilling it all. No one seems to get that a bit of mystery is a good thing and that everything isn't everyone's business.

Great post Brother Lin!

Moanerplicity said...

@ Val:

So glad I'm not completely alone on this, Val. I realize these opinions generally fall into a minority mindset, but dammit, people have just become TOO wide-open & have taken cyber communications waaaaay too damn far!

One.

Roger Poladopoulos said...

So true, my blogger brother! I often wonder what happened to the old adage: Familiarity breeds contempt. Sometimes, we just don't need to know all the mundane details. Some things are best kept private. If the entire world knows, what's the beauty of intimacy?

Moanerplicity said...

@ Roger: You wrote...

"Some things are best kept private. If the entire world knows, what's the beauty of intimacy?"


EXACTLY! And that's my entire point. But it seems, at least these days, so few of us have gotten that memo!


One.

Anna Renee said...

DAYUM!! I just did a post on the subject of Social Media overwhelm! Then I come over to see you've done one too! This isht is curazy!

I'm tired to death of the overwhelm and the banality of it all. I'm gonna come back and read this piece fully in a minute Brother Eastside.

Moanerplicity said...

Yes Anna May. "Overwhelm" would be the correct word for the current state of today's cyber/digital world. Certain activities have crossed the border, gone beyond the pail, over the line & completely upset the status quo of what was once thought to be normal, & yes, private!


That you also penned a blog on this very subject can only mean that 'great minds do indeed think alike.' *wry smile*


One.

Anna Renee said...

It's a shame how the whole thing is going down.

First they train you to want FAME! At least back in the day, you had to pay for it in sweat. Now days we want FAME without paying the cost. So we vogue our gory bruises and chapped lipped forlorned faces.

We want FAME without paying, so we use our cellphones and Youtube to broadcast ourselves. We see other FAME whores being crucified by their fame, but we still move toward the precipice of FAME.

Its sad the amount of mindlessness that is happening in this country. We see it everywhere in everything. Our humanness is being snatched from us. It is always in technology that we get isht all mixed up.

I was watching an episode of Anderson, and there was a lady who carries dolls around like they are babies. She pushes her doll in a stroller, and people mistake it for a real baby. They call them reborns and they are freakishly realistic looking.
So this one lady set up a Youtube for her Reborn Baby. She's interacting with her reborn - feeding it, talking to it and whatnot. She's got numerous hits on her Youtube. People are watching her feed her doll.

The thing that struck me about her was her utter lack of shame or fear of being looked at as a fool. Back in the day, at least we were smart enough not to flaunt it if we were bonkers.

It's all madness! We have forgotten how to be human beings.

Moanerplicity said...

@ Anna May:

True dat! Methinks fame changed & morphed into something far less legitimate. Now there's FAME before & after the Age of Kardasian. I prefer the earlier version, where talent, REAL TALENT was a major factor & a necessity in being famous.

Yes, you can lay a famous or semi-famous person and BOOM! You too can be famous (cut to Monica Wolensky or Kim K). OR you can commit an atrocity today, and be all over the media tomorrow. BAM! You're famous. Suddenly everyone will know your face & your infamous name. But whose fault is that really? I blame the media for GLORIFYING the sick/insane/ unstable desperation of some people by broadcasting it on 99 different channels.

People who aren't wrapped too tight will & have taken note of this isht & they have & will continue to act out accordingly.

Nothing is sacred any more. Privacy & discretion are clearly out the door. It boggles my mind how people will seek to exploit themselves... even when it's in a mortifying light.

TMI is actually a kind term for some people and the acts they willingly commit. I think it's closer to being a sickness, perhaps it's the height of narcissism, or some form of egomania gone amok.


That woman you describe is just plain sad, & crazy... & crazy-sad.


Finally, the long & short of it is this:

We live in an era of baseless hype & hyperactivity, of Youtube & filmed foolishness, of smartphones & stupid people.



Thanks for weighing in, Anna May.


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Unknown said...

Some of the things ppl put out there is like huh? to me

Moanerplicity said...

@ thegayte-keeper:

When you're not crazy yourself, it's a useless enterprise to waste your time trying to UNDERSTAND crazy!


One.

Chet said...

Couldn't agree with you more, we have turned to electronics and turned away from human contact to the point many of us have surely become introverts.

Moanerplicity said...

@ Chet:

Well-stated, bruh. That's one of the numerous downfalls to the digital age. And we're all (well, too many of us) drinking the Kool-Aid.

One.