What's Up Column: My Global Village is Better Than Yours!

Whitehorse is filled with a bevvy of culture-vultures, and it's apparently of a great social importance to consume the proper media. It's a very strange bohemian class system in which one is forced to agree to pretend to enjoy bullshit, and panned for consuming what they actually enjoy.
Fuck off and let people enjoy whatever they hell they want. Here's the article:


I wish people would just let me enjoy technology.
I recently had a conversation on how communication has changed over the years. It’s obvious that modern advances have completely changed the way people not only communicate with each other, but ultimately the medium in which they do so.
The conversation led to an argument on degrees of nobility between forms of communication. As in, is it better to talk to someone face to face, than to instant message someone?
No doubt you’ve already made that choice in your head. Unfortunately, there has been a trend lately to equate a certain amount of nobility to being a vague sort of Luddite. As in, people honestly believe that they are better people by avoiding certain elements of modern technology. It’s the new metrosexuality.
While I will always heartily applaud one’s right to believe darn well anything they want, I get a little disappointed in people when I hear this sentiment: That divorcing oneself from certain elements of technology will naturally make one a better citizen of the world.
Hopefully, that last sentence will sound ridiculous. As well it should. We’ve made a sad practice out of creating levels of status from our idle pastimes. Apparently what you do in your free time becomes your watermark of value in society.
These days the pooh-poohing trend leans towards how we communicate with each other. Our options in that category have increased dramatically, with ongoing advances in e-mail and wireless technology. Keeping touch these days is pretty darn simple.
So yeah, you really have no excuse why you shouldn’t be saying hello to mom. (Which reminds me…)
But can one truly say that one form of communication is better than the other. I’d say the matter is really far too subjective. What works for some, doesn’t work for others. Whereas some folks heartily enjoy the face-to-face chat, others take pleasure in what e-mails or instant messaging has to offer.
Let’s take a look at teenagers, I’d say they’re paragons of social interaction. While you might be having your comfortable chat with a live human being, they’re likely engaged in a dozen conversations. And please, let’s not get into who will be having the more benign conversation. Face to face talks about Grey’s Anatomy episodes can be just as inane as sharing the latest Youtube finds.
There are just as many nuances in an email, than there are in a live conversation. There are differences for sure, but sometimes there are things you can only say electronically. The mere fact that technology has now allowed for a far greater range of people to effectively communicate to others on a global scale is a good thing. (One would think.)
I know I won’t be building any bridges here. There are too many factors ingrained in our society, mainly right here in the Yukon, that don’t allow for much leeway. There are many popular perceptions on what you should be consuming, what culture you should be paying attention to, and on exactly what vehicle your information should be delivered. Elitism in any form is pretty ridiculous. And when it comes to such a subjective matter, it is even more so. So, thumb through your copy of Adbusters with the pride you think you deserve, the world will still turn.
And I’ll still be having fun with my toys.