The Popular Kid

If you're over the age of 19 then you probably don't care about being popular any longer. You're probably in college, or working, and just trying to figure yourself out. You most likely don't cry in your bed at night if you didn't get invited to "that party". Nor are you going to buy the best pair of Nike's so that one dude named Raul doesn't beat you up. Popularity is past you...right?

Wrong.

You still create "invites" and send them to particular individuals. When things happen, you discuss it, post it, splatter it on a ...wall. You "like" certain products, and heaven forbid someone likes you, you hope you both "like" the same things.

It isn't just social networking that has inflamed the desires of cliques among society. It's prevalent in in all aspects of life in the 21st Century. You can blame Snooki, Diet Coke, Calvin Klein, wait...

Marketing. Advertising. The people that know stuff. We must do whatever the people that know stuff are doing. Have you ever stopped to think who knows stuff? Let me open the door to their world. A person in marketing knows how to read people...they know what makes people jump and ask how high. But in the purest form, marketing is simple animal instinct. Whatever gets the person closer to a mate, food, safety, and heightened senses is what will drive that person to purchase, live in, or be involved in that "thing".

Um, I do remember someone once telling me in 2nd grade that I was a mammal. I guess they were right.

iPad or iBaby?

No, there is no new technology called the iBaby. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple released that in the next few years. Mostly, this post is about how…just like the iPad, babies are the new fad!

Fad? Who would have a baby just to be cool? The entire Midwest I say! Okay, perhaps that was an unnecessary dig on the Midwest. I mean there are a lot of good features about the Midwest…the arch, corn, tornadoes. But even the Midwest isn't the only region free of this epidemic.

No, I don't think having children is an epidemic like SARS. I do, however, think that the need to have a baby under the age of 18 is. What makes you think that because Sally Joe got knocked up that you will possibly enjoy a blissful motherhood if you do the same? I'll tell you who's given you that notion...it's mainstream TV, and the advent of said reality shows which I will not mention due to copy write infringement. But you know what I'm describing. In fact, in an interview on Nightline, one teen mom (the first televised one) admitted that her friends asked her if it would be easy to get on reality TV if they had a teen pregnancy as well.

This is infuriating to me. Did I mention I was infuriated? Well I AM! I don't care what kind of privileged home you hail from. You are not fit to raise a child if you’re under the age of 18. I don't care how rich, educated, or well mannered you are. This isn't Little House on the Prairie and we're not getting married at age 14, unless of course you're a polygamist in TX. In which case that's a whole other blog post that I can rant about.

So what do you do when you have this little creature? I suppose you'll have to live at home since it's hard to even find a livable wage these days. Oh, did you know they can puke on you? Well they can. And sometimes it's green. Are you prepared for that? Are you prepared for the green puke, green poop, and the green face you'll have when you realize the vile fluids you'll have to dispose of on a regular basis? Also, that baby won't stay a baby forever. Eventually it's going to grow up, go to college if it's intelligent enough, and it will bleed you dry financially.

Don't get me wrong. I'm pro-life. If you make a wrong choice on accident as a youth then I believe you should accept responsibility for that action and raise your child. But the teens that think it's "cool" to have a baby in high school are just plain stupid. Bottom of the barrel stupid. Parents please listen to your teens when they're talking. Make sure they aren't out to make such a rash decision. They probably won't realize the level of real rashes they'll have to deal with when they choose to be "preggers"

Gimmie Gimmie Want Want

I'm pretty sure if you wanted to buy a house, car, groceries, furniture, business, plastic surgery, and spouse in one day you could do it online. Perhaps even in half a day?

Our perception of reality in society is a bit off lately.

"What do you want to do today?"

"Uh, I have to run errands. But we could go out to eat and then shopping first"...

"Yes! But first I have to text six people and make sure they're all "checked in" to where we're going to eat. Then they must join us and fawn over us with compliments and humor"

Now I know that scenario sounds a bit "Sheen", but it's true! We must be plugged into the entire world before we take our next step. All our steps have to be evaluated by 4 "friends" and we don't really make goals anymore.

When I was a child you did things, on the weekends. It required planning. You had play dates or went to the movies. We called each other on our cell phones yes, but we didn't have to update the world every five minutes about our thoughts on the film, and whether Bobby would put his hand on my knee.

This post is pretty fluid. Mostly it's about how you can have and do whatever you want so rapidly that society has lost it's luster. I used to like going shopping but now I fear I could probably get something better online. What if my friend owns it too? What if I get sick of it? Thanks to online social networking I "like" and dislike things quickly.

Can our brains keep up with this rapid pace environment? These are the mental flying cars of our day. Go go go! Leave relationships behind. Do what you want, when you want, with no thought of it's effects until you've moved onto the more interesting venue in your life.

So how do we prevent it?

Invest.

Invest your time. Invest your money. Invest in good people. Invest in good jobs. Make some goals and invest in those.

Eventually you will be able to look back and say you lived a life of quality not quantity.