2008 Woodie Awards
Trite activities, anonymity protect from real life letdowns
Andrew Ek
Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: Opinion
And when I'm bored, I can carefully select my quotations to present the "me" that I want my Facebook friends to see. The worst thing they can do is refuse to poke me back.
Of course, if I ever took my iPod out when I was walking to or from class, or even in class, I might get the chance to get to know these people on a personal level and maybe talk with them in real life. But I like it better when I can control all of the noises that come into my ears. It means that nothing ever challenges me unless I want it to. That's what "Rock Band" is for, right?
It doesn't matter, though. I'm only in class for the grades. If I get that GPA up high enough, I'll get a good job (measured in salary dollars), which will then let me work according to the salary I want.
The job will suck, but what job doesn't these days?
If I earn enough, I might just have enough money to do something fun on the weekends, like drink beer and watch football with some of "the guys." The football lets us share an experience without having to put any actual effort in. Shared experiences create bonding, or in this case, manly bonding.
The beer lets us dull away the parts of our lives that make us unhappy. Like the crappy job. Or the lack of real friendships. Or even the gnawing realization that, no matter how hard we try, the amount of control we actually have over our lives is infinitesimal, at best.
So long as we insulate ourselves from anything that could hurt us, from anything that could make us unhappy, from anything that reminds us that the world isn't always a friendly place, we're safe, right?
So long as we reduce the number of things that we care about to those things that don't matter, like sports or GPA or even the thread count of our comforters (because that's all those things are: comforters), we'll be fine, right?
That's the American dream, isn't it? Security above everything else? And if we're never put in situations that challenge us, we'll never be forced to confront those inadequacies they assured us in elementary school didn't exist. "You're a special child, and you can be anything you want! Nothing will ever hold you back!"
Of course, if I ever took my iPod out when I was walking to or from class, or even in class, I might get the chance to get to know these people on a personal level and maybe talk with them in real life. But I like it better when I can control all of the noises that come into my ears. It means that nothing ever challenges me unless I want it to. That's what "Rock Band" is for, right?
It doesn't matter, though. I'm only in class for the grades. If I get that GPA up high enough, I'll get a good job (measured in salary dollars), which will then let me work according to the salary I want.
The job will suck, but what job doesn't these days?
If I earn enough, I might just have enough money to do something fun on the weekends, like drink beer and watch football with some of "the guys." The football lets us share an experience without having to put any actual effort in. Shared experiences create bonding, or in this case, manly bonding.
The beer lets us dull away the parts of our lives that make us unhappy. Like the crappy job. Or the lack of real friendships. Or even the gnawing realization that, no matter how hard we try, the amount of control we actually have over our lives is infinitesimal, at best.
So long as we insulate ourselves from anything that could hurt us, from anything that could make us unhappy, from anything that reminds us that the world isn't always a friendly place, we're safe, right?
So long as we reduce the number of things that we care about to those things that don't matter, like sports or GPA or even the thread count of our comforters (because that's all those things are: comforters), we'll be fine, right?
That's the American dream, isn't it? Security above everything else? And if we're never put in situations that challenge us, we'll never be forced to confront those inadequacies they assured us in elementary school didn't exist. "You're a special child, and you can be anything you want! Nothing will ever hold you back!"
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