Life Before Playdates
Editor’s Note: Absolutely nothing about today’s market action or geopolitical news flow seemed relevant or even piqued my interest. So, I thought I’d just rant irrelevantly for a bit to speed you into your weekend.
Growing up during the 70s and 80s provided more than a few “life experiences” that younger generations simply can’t understand.
For instance, my kids can’t possibly imagine what it’s like to put down the back seat of a station wagon and wrestle with your siblings while dad barrels down the freeway at 70 miles per hour.
Channel surfing between only 4 channels on a T.V. with rabbit ears sounds like pure fiction.
When they see a phone with a rotary dial, it would seem their mental historical timeline places it alongside the adoption of steam powered engines.
Playdates didn’t exist. You just went outside.
“Which way is North” wasn’t an occult secret.
I suspect riding a bike without a helmet is, well…
They will never know what it’s like to get dropped off at the “Departures” curb of an airport 10 minutes before your flight and sprint directly to the gate.
And they don’t have a clue how one’s social standing can be determined without this damn thing…
The incentive to post content for “likes” turned self-worth inside out. It made what you think of me public knowledge. The resulting emotional fragility transformed how you refer to me when I’m not around – a.k.a. pronouns – into a weapon of mass validation.
It gave us snowflakes and safe spaces. It stifled public discourse. It stomped critical thinking into the ground making it possible to hypnotize vast swathes of society to think cotton masks can trap a virus.
It made society more malleable.
And it all but obliterated the notion of self-determination from the American mind.
But however effective social media has been in guiding “right think,” wait till you see what ChatGPT does to the ability of Mass Man to speak its mind.
Will you look at that?
I somehow shifted today’s meandering reminiscence towards something somewhat relevant (honestly, I had no idea where I was going when I started).
But the hour is late and I’m pushing up against my deadline so I’ll have to pick at this thread another day.
Anywho, have a great weekend everyone.
And remember…
Think Free. Be Free.
