My children have learned the above song lyrics and they will run around the house singing the song Apt by Rose and Bruno Mars. They know it because there is a YouTube version with cats and my daughter knows how to use YouTube and find many videos she shouldn’t watch. When she finds one like this that is simply a current pop song sung by cats it is a relief.
Another song my daughter somewhat likes is Hot to Go by Chapell Roan which contains the lyrics, “It’s all in my head but I crave non-fiction.” Both Hot to Go and Apt contain that old fashioned longing for human connection. A connection that is being lost in this world.
During my own doom scrolling the other day I came across a video of a woman being practically strip searched at Wal-Mart. You know how Wal-Mart has those people at the exist that are paid to casually glance at your receipt as you walk out. Well they decided that this woman stole something at the self checkout and despite her receipt being CVS long they went item by item through her cart. At one point they told her they were treating her with the utmost respect. This is what we’d call ragebait but it baited me because calling someone a thief and a liar is the direct opposite of respect.
The incident at all current pop songs being about the craving for human companionship are symptoms of the same disease. I have written before about the lack of shared experience of how little people listen to FM radio or watch the same nightly news or Must See TV Thursday on NBC. There is very little anymore that is sweeping the nation. That leaves us with sports, politics, and religion to talk about and those are the three topics that can come to blows if we talk about it with the wrong person.
When I was younger we’d drive in to work listening to morning drive time radio and maybe we’d hear an interesting topic and we could gather in the breakroom or meet by someone’s desk to discuss that and that topic would lead to talking about the latest episode of FX or AMC’s latest hit show. Since then the world has become streaming and curated. We all live in our own individual bubbles. We live more life in the digital world than in the real one. Blowing up people’s phones with kissy faces instead of planting them on their lips or making beats so the person you’re courting will dance with you instead of spending time with them.
It is an increasingly disconnected world and it makes me understand why a lot of Gen Z rejects technology. I am grateful today for the time I’ve carved out with my family and the time I get to spend with them.
David Huzzard Writes 