Saturday, May 30, 2009

Lo-fi

On CNN the other morning, a reporter was explaining the concept of Twitter, with the kind of dumbed-down language and fake-excited voice you'd use with a child you were trying to cajole. He included a primer on acronyms like LOL and ROTF (and puritanically omitted -LMAO).

Come on, really? We've been LOL-ing for years now. Even LOLCats seemed to have jumped the shark (now there's some metaphor-mixing).

It made me think about this dichotomy I've noticed in people around me, an affinity for both high-tech gadgets and lo-fi living. The same people juggling iPhones, Kindles and Roombas, also embrace--almost fanatically--bike rides and farmer's markets, backyard bbq's and do-it-yourself house projects. We all want to have the latest and greatest and coolest, all while keepin' it real and doin' it old school.

Are we like this because we can be? Would I be so invested in eating seasonally and living sustainably if I were working two jobs, if I had the kind of childcare, transportation or domestic issues that millions of women in their 20's, 30's, 40's and beyond are dealing with?

I don't know. I'm not even sure I would want to find out.

Postscript: the search for Sasquatch continues, unsuccessfully

No comments:

Post a Comment