29 January

I believe Gen X is the last generation for some time who will have the experience of an adult life that is qualitatively different from high school life. And only at the beginning of their careers, now past, social media has caused a rapid acceleration of the process of replacing adult life with high school culture, so in the second half of their careers they’ve also experienced that transition. One of the reasons I most look forward to retirement is that I resent my adult life being hijacked again by the social rules of school, the economy of likes, of status hierarchies built upon popularity. It was a great relief to leave that shit behind, in high school. Now it’s back, and it’s everywhere, at all ages and in all activities. That’s what social media has done. Entire lives, including work, are now transacted through it. Not because others are more popular, it’s easy enough to be popular, if you play that game. It’s not a jealousy thing. It’s the exhaustion of dealing with that in the much more complex and serious adult world of work. Of seeing basic and urgent needs going unmet, because they’re re-routed through status hierarchies of popularity. Your own kids’ worlds being trashed by influencers, mostly morons, whose only interest is themselves.