Duh Mass

So I was reading today's newspaper and I was once again floored by the stupidity of the common teenager. Now I'm not picking on teenagers in general, just the stupid ones. I'm sure that any teenager reading this will say something akin to "that's not me, he's talking about someone else, I'm invincible".

A young lady, all of eighteen years old, was clocked on the Lincoln Alexander Parkway (which has a posted limit of 90 kph) doing 194 kph. Her excuse? She thought she had run over something and was trying to "shake it loose". The full story is here, but it's small and I've given you most of it.

At that speed, she doesn't get a ticket, she gets a summons to appear before a judge who will I most sincerely hope, take her licence away for a long, long, time. Long enough that her children will be driving her around.

Some of those who read this blog are in my line of work or something similar (firefighter, nurse, cop etc) and have seen the results time and time again of teenage stupidity. I'll grant you that stupidity is most certainly not restricted to teenagers, but teenagers have their own distinct brand of duh-massness.

News headlines local and abroad are filled too often with stories about excessive speed. Almost six months ago, my old partner Darren responded to a man who was cut in half after being hit by a speeder. But it doesn't stop.

I don't get it.

Facebook

So this evening I was talking to two of my co-workers that I see regularly, and a worker at St. Joseph’s Hospital about Facebook. Jaci has been into it for a few weeks now and I started up maybe a week and a half ago.

There are some things that I have noticed. There are many listed as “friends” that I work with, or talk to, or otherwise communicate in some fashion on a reasonably regular timetable. There are also a number of people that I haven’t seen, or spoken to in some time. Either old classmates, work mates, etc etc.

So I have been beginning to ask myself, if I haven’t spoken with in , why is that? Did we grow apart? Did we make attempts to stay in contact but one of us wasn’t that interested? Or was it simply that while we were together in a particular context we got along really well and then we both went different ways. It’s not that we didn’t or wouldn’t get along famously, our life paths are just different.

Case in point is a guy named Eric. We were roommates one summer (2000 I think) and we got along very well. Same interests, hung with the same crowd, same sense of humour, the works. After the summer, whenever we would see each other or talk, we’d laugh and have a great time. But we’ve moved on. We keep saying that we’ll get together, and maybe we will but for now we chat once in awhile on MSN and that works for us.

The other side of the coin is that some people are in our past for a reason. It’s not necessarily that you don’t (or didn’t) like them but you didn’t see the need to stay in touch once school was over, or you changed jobs, or whatever. Should you add them as a facebook friend? If they want to add you, it’s easy to say “no” but who wants to be the cause of someone else’s rejection? I (usually) don’t. I also have issues about the word “friend”, about which please refer to an earlier post.

So the conundrum continues.

Call me old fashioned, but I would rather send or get an email, or dare I say it, a phone call! Even if they are few and far between, it’s seems much more personal. I like personal.

It seems that old fashioned letter writing was replaced by the large scale use of the telephone, which was replaced by email (poorly formatted letter writing) which is being replaced by text messaging and “wall” graffiti. Makes you wonder why some have a hard time understanding why it is that common and effective communication is no longer common or effective.

Be well all.