Too Much Social Media Is A Bad Thing

 As I pass middle age, I am starting to feel like the Old Gunslinger surrounded by new fangled stuff like telephones and horseless carriages. I am only required when a new gang of ruffians rides into town and the local council is afraid to act. They text me at the saloon and beg me to come out of retirement. My Dad noticed the annoying technology when he was around 85 living with modern kids and grand kids, the whole family plugged-in and lap-topping. He would lament, “Things have changed.” He was missing old-fashioned conversation and dare I say it, manners. 

 There are loads of platitudes about our new way of life. People swear their lives are made much easier with Smartphones! “I can save the planet and get on with my narcissistic life at the same time!” “Hilarious tweet, Dude!” Every aspect of life has an app. “I bought an electric car on Amazon!” “Got a ride home with Uber!” The worst offender is Twitter. Every insignificant faux pas blasted around the world for painful and wasted scrutiny. “Thanks, Vlad. Enjoyed my evening with your Russian Prostitutes!” The British prefer texting because they don’t like human contact. Imagine what Wyatt Earp would say. “It’s all a lot of horseshit.” He doesn’t want to message ahead so his Starbucks is waiting when he pulls up out front. “Double Whip Grande for Wyatt!” He wants to sit in the establishment (with his back to the wall) and stare at people to see if they remember the OK Corral. “Aren’t you the guy from Tombstone?” That is what he wants to hear. He wants to take time over an interaction and explain the difference between myth and reality such as it is. Yes. He would say we are shallow. He might remark about how his place in history is marked by several inaccurate films. “Those are mere entertainments, sir. Although, I am a big Val Kilmer fan.”

With all our wisdom and tech-aids we have succumbed to Pop Culture in a bad way. No wonder he world is on a precipice led by Reality TV presidents. Can’t I say “You’re Fired” and change the channel? Part of me wants to embrace the digital world and the rest of me says, “Horseshit.” This guy is an asshole, communicating with his asshole base with tweets unworthy of a fifth grader. These same unemployed people, victims of the world takeover by Silicon Valley, voted him in. How clever is that? Elect a rich New York developer who has no taste. I can say this because I have read Hillbilly Elegy and have sympathy for their plight. I even look like one of them. Picture little grey beards and old-school rock tee shirts in a Big Box Store. I don’t think of them as “deplorables” but certainly don’t fancy my future wrapped up with theirs. I am not a blue-collar fellow no matter what my circumstances. I still prefer art theory to conspiracies even though the former is no longer lucid. It has long since been taken over by single-track Anti-Colonial nonsense. What would Baudelaire say? “C’est dommage?” Art itself has taken a dive in the past ten years or maybe been subsumed by media. There is nothing to review besides world chaos. I figure this coincides with Steve Job’s evil iPhone. Have you ever noticed the logo’s reference to Original Sin?

Can it be true that Apple, Google and Facebook (GOOF) have replaced my father’s favorites, GE and GM? Those companies along with Kodak, Coca-Cola, IBM and Xerox gave nice benefits if you worked for them and paid nice dividends if you invested with them. They also made stuff. That was the American Dream with social mobility guaranteed to some lucky folks. What has replaced it? Consumers are held captive by the monopoly of digital companies with no regulation of any sort. I like regulation. Boundaries are good for me. Withdrawal from the present day is an excellent strategy. Though, it takes a decided effort to take yourself out of the spin-cycle in order to re-assemble a more thoughtful reality.

Back to leadership. How did this nasty uncultured stuff became so popular in the first place? Surely, not through mere political polarization. Fox News, Reality TV and the lowest common denominator won out because they ran around our narrative. The progressive movement reached it’s height. Let’s not be nice about it. They hate art. It is for snobs like me. That aside, the only reason it has come to this is because we haven’t evaluated our blanket technology. This leaves Steve Bannon-types free to utilize alt-right gamers in elections. These actions led us to perdition and a crisis that will last until the next 911. Until then, I will continue looking for a historical precedent for the speed of change that Wyatt can live with.