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20110516

Facebook and Twitter are just so passé




Q:



A:

You know what your problem is, Don? You just need to grow up.

You remind me of Armand. You two are just so afraid you're going to be left behind and fall off the "bridge" to the next century.

You're clinging to youth as if your lives depended on it, but do you know what youth is?

Do you remember when you were five?

Of course, you don't. Not to worry, most people don't.

What about thirteen, then?

Remember what it felt like when you were thirteen, Don? The other kids, older than you, on the playground? Two feet taller and looking down at you?



You and Armand, you're just like Will, aren't you? All grown-up, and yet still so scared you're going to be ditched.

You realize how Adlerian all of this is, don't you? Über den nervösen Charakters!

I mean, look at Armand. Armand is 400 years old. Remember when you were thirteen and how you looked up back then to the kids three or five years older than you were? Now, imagine facing a kid much older than you are. A kid twice your age. Three, four, five...ten times your age, or more.

No wonder, Oedipus killed his father. Who wants to live in the shadow of another, your elder forever?

Biologists call it SAS (Shade Avoidance Syndrome).

It's a pretty universal theme, really.



Modern moms nowadays, they are trying so hard to stay fit and trim; like some of your colleagues, Don, they've become so intent mimicking what the next generation is doing.

This is the reason why they follow the same fashion their daughters do, and wear the same things—or try to. And vice-versa—don't ask—clothing fashion can be so elusive (way more transient than any technological trend).



And this is the reason why their daughters are trying so hard to create their own style and eventually end-up wearing clothes that would look utterly ridiculous on their moms—it's the whole point.



I don't blame them. I mean, Madonna is great and everything, but who wants to live forever in the shadow of anyone, regardless of how great they are?

This is the reason why these kids aren't exchanging emails with you anymore, Don. This is your thing—that's what your generation did. Kids, they don't want to just catch up and follow in your footsteps, they don't want to play by your rules, Don, you know that! Not if there is another way around. Not when they can change the rules and have it "their way."

As for Facebook and Twitter, they are so passé, already. Do you know how I know that, Don? Your generation has just begun getting into it... Time to move on to the next thing. I wonder what it will be, next year.

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