Overheard, a group of teenage girls: "…but they must've
broken up, did you see the hashtag?"
I have many, many questions about this statement. Perhaps that's because I'm almost three times the age of the person who said it. But a hashtag signalling the nail in the coffin of a budding romance...? To coin another oft heard phrase of the generation to whom I impart knowledge...I'm so confused. Whatever the person being referenced actually updated, tweeted, or posted on Instagram in some kind of hyper-coloured, ragged framed visual announcement of breaking up, it wasn't enough. They needed the hashtag for reinforcement.
And did they update straight away? In between the sobs? Has updating our every experience become a reflex? Do our friends and extended google circles need to know everything all the time?
And what was the hashtag?
It made me think about the guy I overheard on the bus who was pretty happy telling his friend that he had "rocked a clean break". I thought he was talking about surfing or a skating trick. But he wasn't. He was talking about the ease with which he had exited his relationship.
And then there was my hairdresser, a guy ten years or so younger than me, who once helpfully gave me a few phrases to pull out if the situation required it:
It's not you, it's me. I have standards.
or
Friendship's all this kitchen's serving.
or
In response to: do you want to give it another shot? ... I'd rather BE shot.
In an age where we can access love or some approximation of intimacy through apps and Internet sites, have we lost the depth and meaning of falling in and out of love and the concept that we are actually dealing with another person? Or is it just another way of negotiating the rocky path of our emotions.
#over
I have many, many questions about this statement. Perhaps that's because I'm almost three times the age of the person who said it. But a hashtag signalling the nail in the coffin of a budding romance...? To coin another oft heard phrase of the generation to whom I impart knowledge...I'm so confused. Whatever the person being referenced actually updated, tweeted, or posted on Instagram in some kind of hyper-coloured, ragged framed visual announcement of breaking up, it wasn't enough. They needed the hashtag for reinforcement.
And did they update straight away? In between the sobs? Has updating our every experience become a reflex? Do our friends and extended google circles need to know everything all the time?
And what was the hashtag?
It made me think about the guy I overheard on the bus who was pretty happy telling his friend that he had "rocked a clean break". I thought he was talking about surfing or a skating trick. But he wasn't. He was talking about the ease with which he had exited his relationship.
And then there was my hairdresser, a guy ten years or so younger than me, who once helpfully gave me a few phrases to pull out if the situation required it:
It's not you, it's me. I have standards.
or
Friendship's all this kitchen's serving.
or
In response to: do you want to give it another shot? ... I'd rather BE shot.
In an age where we can access love or some approximation of intimacy through apps and Internet sites, have we lost the depth and meaning of falling in and out of love and the concept that we are actually dealing with another person? Or is it just another way of negotiating the rocky path of our emotions.
#over
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