Monday, September 8, 2014

What happened to the Cocktail Party?

Is this something that disappeared with the era of Mad Men, in the 1960's and early 70's?  Didn't adults get together and socialize in evenings, drinking some potent cocktail, and smoking, talking about politics, the economy, schools, and whatever?  Two martini's later and perhaps a a conversation gone right (or wrong) and you had to dash out to check on the kids...

At least people were getting together.  Talking.  Sharing their perceptions of a world changing so rapidly that it was hard to keep up.

Have we accepted the rate of change so completely today that being overwhelmed by change is the norm, and we've stopped caring?  Is the era of chasing the Almighty Buck been replaced by something else?  Maybe.

I saw this week that the Millennial Generation is nicknamed the Me-Me-Me Generation.  It makes me think about what the other generations between mine, the Baby Boomers, and the current generation, the what?  I guess it is yet to me named.  But there was Generation X, then the Millennials or Generation Y, and now the new one, Gen. Z?  Information overload is their stock in trade, they embrace it and don't even recognize it as overload.  It is just Normal.

So how do they interact with their peers?  By text?  By sext?  Emails are a thing of the past.  Instant messages, video, and social media.  Who needs parties?   Too few people get to attend.  Physical contact?  Why bother?  Face to face conversation?  How slow is that?  I can type faster...

So we old fogeys sit at home, left behind by this younger generation, wondering how to get together with our friends and have some laffs, some good times, and get a little drunk.  On merlot, I guess.  Yuppie stuff.

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