Two things that didn't exist, before

So, I'm told that it's actually a thing when people purge their friends list on social networking sites in response to real-life trauma.

I'm not saying that social networking invented the midlife crisis; just that this specific form of snubbing people, where you decide that you don't care about/want to avoid someone, and which has always gone on internally, has now been concretized and made available to the snubbed.





And: All the Fan Pages on these networks which highlight some trivial universal or other.

"walkin past some1 with a big afro and thinkin legend"

"saying thingy when you cant think of the word to say"

"it wasnt awkward til u said "this is awkward". Now its awkward"

"im not ignoring you, yr text is just pointless to reply to"

"i will go out of my way to step on a leaf that looks particularly crunchy"

"The Guy Who Discovered Milk...what was he doing with the cow!!?!?"

"Yeah, ok, yes, yeah, yeah, ok, yes, ok, i know, ok, yes, BYE MOM<."

"join if u havnt broke a bone"

"i used to cover my hands in glue at schooll just so I could peel it off"

"sorry i missed your call...LOL JK i ignored that shit"

"when you talk to an old friend how good the memories were" (started by a 14 year old, no doubt)

There's apparently whole industries springing up around people's desire for them. Creating them and looking for the ones applicable to yourself has become an activity in itself, rather than, I dunno, life. We will cram life into lolspeak, you just see if we don't.

I suppose the place they previously thrived in was in bad stand-up ("Hey, have you ever noticed..?") and stoner dens.

But also in novels - one of the best parts of reading! - where you saw a resonance of yourself, the author suddenly voices something you have never heard discussed but which is unmistakably human, or even unmistakably you. But strip the insight of the surrounding book (the chance surprise) and you're left with an oddly compulsive, witless thing. A trivialized triviality.

I won't complain (any more) though. It encourages reflection, of a sort; it draws on negative facts, which we are geared to overlook. It cracks open whisper it human nature in a way that previously required artistic sensitivity.