PARISocial Activity

I have had dreams that Britney Spears was my sister. More than once. I have never even bought one of her songs. 

The only rag mag I 'read' is Entertainment Weekly and the occasional Huffington Post celebrity blurb. Somehow I know what Cameron Diaz looks like without make up.

I am almost NEVER on Facebook or YouTube but my husband has kept me up with the Jones's to see dancing dogs and rapping nerds. I've actually applauded the monitor.

The X and Y'ers grew up before we all had instant media in our pockets. The new generation has so much information stimuli streaming at them, how do they know their 'real' friends from 'virtual' ones? Everyone is famous in our World Wide Web. John Mayer is allotted the same number of characters per Tweet as I. 

I recently spent a few days with a 16 year old boy. We were both a part of a group hired to act in short scenes for a company conference. Good money, good audience, corporate 'art'. Like all teenagers, this kid, Ronnie, had a lot of energy and was always hungry. He would bounce around between his phone, his headphones and basic bursts of little dancing jigs that he sang to. He'd even brought his props for practicing Poi, which he performed every couple of hours when the urge or audience hit him. He showed us pictures of his friends and bragged about how many different nationalities they all were. He claimed to be able to sing 20 songs that were each in a different language. 

One thing I found very interesting about this kid was that he never once mentioned a celebrity. He didn't claim allegiance to a band that changed his life or to a rich and beautiful heiress. When I asked him who his acting idol was, he said he liked Jackie Chan but then said he didn't know how to 'fight or anything' like him.  Of course we are all concerned about the narcissism of the new generation and what to expect for the future of these little people all trying to be uniquely the same, but after meeting Ronnie, I have more confidence that these kids might actually be absorbing the benefits of streaming information. People are still people.  

Hopefully, parents will still parent in this world and the virtual one. The old dogs may be the ones fooled by these new tricks.