"You let it out honey, write
it in the book."
I should change this blog to Jake's Burn Book. Or maybe that can be the working title to a book if I ever write one.
I guess I have just been thinking a lot about how much I hate kids. Not like, little kids. Just pre-teens, teens, and pro/after-teens. I was at the pool today and there was this kid that was probably 12 and he had a little group of cronies following him around. His whole purpose, in my opinion, was to make everyone's day as miserable as his life is. He was going around the pool and was splashing everyone in the face. Other kids, adults, lifeguards, moms, you name it. That little sonofabitch would've splashed his own grandmother in the face if he had gotten a chance. So my wife and I had just gotten into the pool, acclimated ourselves to the water and were just talking. Then the little prick came swimming behind us in the lazy river and splashed my wife right in the face. I had a lot of choice words for him, but he went underwater and swam away before I could tell him what big words I was thinking. I sat and watched him do the same thing to an older lady just right across the pool from us. Now, some of you may be thinking, "But Jacob. He is just a boy!" True. But that doesn't make him less disrespectful. It's not about the fact that it's just water. It's about the fact that we're there trying to enjoy ourselves, and if my wife or myself would like to get our heads/faces/anything wet, it should be on our own terms. Not because kids have no respect for anyone. I guess my biggest problem was that if I used my big swear words, I may have gotten thrown out of the pool. But I wish the lifeguards would have done something about it. If it were up to me, or my wife (she was a lifeguard for a very long time.) He would've been kicked out long before then.
I was just pondering over this experience and how much I really don't understand today's youth. Furthermore, how much I really don't want to understand today's youth. If I were 12 and had splashed an older woman in the face, I'm confident my mother would have made me apologize to the woman after she waterboarded me. (It'll be legal here soon, won't it?) I don't really want to be one of those people that are constantly saying "When I was a kid..." because those people suck so much. I have people come into the hardware store I work at all day long and tell me how much cheaper things used to be. And it makes me want to set them on fire. "They used to pay US to come and get soda and .22 bullets!" I guess I don't really mean to be nostalgic on the ideas that things used to be cheaper and better. I just mean to be nostalgic on the fact that there used to be morals and respect in the world. People can't even look at their kid in an angry way without CPS rolling up on their front porch. I don't mean to be insensitive, because I know for sure that CPS have helped a lot of kids out of bad situations. Just seems like a double edged sword.
We live in an age where it's constant gratification. The only reason people want to go to baseball games, or go to the Grand Canyon, or to see the Golden Gate Bridge, or to a concert is so they can take pictures and videos, post them on the internet, and get the gratification that people "like" what they post. And they get even further gratification out of the fact that there are people that ARE NOT there and are Jealous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess my whole question is, who gives a shit? Why don't you go to a concert to enjoy the music? I used to take pictures and videos too, but it's because I want to remember the experience. Not try and make that one girl who is kinda rude sometimes to you that is like always posting on facebook about stuff that you don't really like and thats super annoying and I know that she likes this band and is gonna be SUPER jealous that I'm here and she is not she is at home with her lame boyfriend ha ha ha ha ha habitch ha ha.
I have had a couple of experiences recently where I have been at events and I look around and everyone is staring at their phones. Middle aged people totally included. Everyone was doing something on their phone. And I am totally not immune to this. But if you put me in a quiet room for a half an hour with only my phone, I would get bored super quick. Once I go through my twitter and instagram I am pretty much over it. I will read baseball reports if they come up, or if I really have to dig I will go to magazine twitter handles and read interviews with band members. But truly, after about a half hour, I usually will end up looking at old pictures on my phone or facebook. I do not understand how people can stare at their phones for hours on end. Is it games? are they doing work? I just don't understand. And to each their own, maybe it's that I have a poor attention span. But it's something that I've noticed.
The world has turned into a great melting pot of preformers and audience. "All the world's a stage" has never been a truer statement. You can be anywhere in the world and you can still post and gather attention, and get the validation we all so desperately need. To be honest, it's pretty scary. We can turn a tragedy like what happened in Orlando to push left or right wing agendas. Instead of getting out there and doing something helpful, like donating blood, we just retweet something that says "Retweet to show support of the victims of the Orlando shootings." I'm sure those who have passed on admire your courage for reposting something so everyone knows you are sensitive and care about them. They're probably brimming from the great beyond because you're so helpful. And maybe that's all you can do. But did you repost it because you truly believe it, or because you want people to think that you believe it? See, that is where I find the true danger in what the world has come to. It's no longer about morals and beliefs, its more about what you want people to think you believe in. And isn't that so messed up? It's more about how we look than who we are. It's taking what we used to call "shallow" and making it a thousand times worse. It's no longer about looks, its about followers and likes and this and that. Does anybody know what they stand for anymore?
I guess I wanna push that you don't need internet validation to be bad ass. You can do stuff and be cool and never post about it and not a soul would know, but you would. And that's all that really matters. Your friends and social media contacts are great, and their approval is probably nice (I wouldn't know, the internet hates me.) but at the end of the day, are your internet friends gonna be there when you're not cool? When it's just you, who is gonna think you are cool? your kids never will, that's for sure. I guess what I want to say is that instead of watering other peoples plants, you should water your own. That's a metaphor, for the simpletons. Don't wait to get approval from the internet to know you're doing something cool or becoming something great. Do it for yourself, and because you want to. Learn to enjoy your company and realize that the world is truly at your fingertips.
Once you understand that nobody really cares, it makes life a lot easier. People may like your posts, but they don't really care. It's all a cesspool of jealousy and hatred, that's what the internet is. They don't really care about you and what you're doing. Everyone alive is looking out for #1, you can believe that. If it doesn't affect them, they don't gain from it, or it doesn't fit their personal agenda, they don't care. Empathy doesn't exist online, you can only find that in real life; particularly your home. Stop posting about it and tell your parents and grandparents when you do something of note, if you're really looking for validation. Those people will always love you and support you.
That was a lot more serious than I intended. I'm also gonna post this without proof reading it; the time is now 12:11 AM and morale is low. I will fix typos tomorrow, probably, so tell the grammar police they're off duty tonight. God bless.
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