I recently started a Tumblr page. I did it for specific reasons, mostly having to do with making a visual argument for a lifestyle choice my wife and I were debating. I wanted to convey all the wonder and possibility making such a purchase could have. A little cheesy, maybe a touch over-reaching, the thing is basically a mood board, a style sheet that I'd present to my wife as if she were some client I was desperately trying to woo. Woo. Anyhow, the thing has turned into a bit of a time-waster, a bit of a mild obsession, and in the end I think it has helped do the job. We're in the process of making the purchase anyway. But I've stumbled upon some realizations having this bit of a digital pin board. First of all, it feels very much like my own bedroom wall I had as a teenager. Back then I'd stick up surfing posters and music posters just so. I'd hang up sporting gear, then thinly veiled drug paraphernalia, then photos of friends and girlfriends in particular fashion. Then maybe my friends would come over and maybe I'd feel proud of how good my room would look, or I'd feel stupid about how bad it'd look. All to say having this Tumblr page is just another foray into the trend towards the adolescentifation of middle age. What's more, as I peruse other blogs and tumblrs and do google image searches or stumble upon images from online news articles I find pictures on other people's digital bedroom walls the same as my own. As if this whole wide expansion of connective thought and correlative opportunity that we see as some kind of digital spring called the world wide internet is only serving to narrow our choices. Yes! You can look at surf stuff and fashion! Yes! You can find that old photo of your favorite soccer player and skateboarder! But they will be the same photos everyone else is seeing. And they'll likely be displayed the same way everyone else is displaying them. And someone is keen to watch it all happen, scoop up the representative rights to the concept and feed it to you in ever larger yet more pristine gulps. All to say, here is a great article my friend Beau sent through last night via Facebook. A great read.
4 comments:
undoubtedly, the most brilliant minds of our time work in advertising. and the seemingly endless Interweb allows those brilliant minds to hide behind a facade of contrived coincidence and providence in order to push someone's agenda. I always come back to the things that seem the most relevant -personal relationships, health and family. philosophy seems to mostly serve the purpose of blurring simplicity and boosting self worth.
The Buffalo & Momi Keaulana piece in one of the recent Surfer's Journal is a good reminder of things.
And I happen to be intimately privy to the fact that while some brilliant minds work in advertising, they are not the most brilliant. Were they the most brilliant, they wouldn't be there, having to put up with all the idiots.
That keaulana piece was one of my favorites in a long time
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