Who am I, who are you, who are we? All excellent questions in a world that wants us all to be the same. Fashionistas look to design clothing that is different and unique but in our quest to be unique we simply conform to that which everyone else wears/wants. Take the tattoo trend as an example. Back in 1994ish Tattos were taboo and yet there I was getting one. I spent my hard earned money on a tat that by todays standards...sucks. I was a rebel, I had a tatoo, I stood out in the crowd. Not so today, nope. I only have a total of 4 and they're all hidden, I'm a freaking wuss by todays standard but I noticed myself looking at a guy crusing in his oversized truck with his arm hanging out the window tattoos up and down his arm. They were nice but I sort just shook my head and thought to myself...looks just like the rest of them. Tattoos have become the norm. To be 'cool' you have to have a tat,you have to dress a certain way and you have to do it all at a certain age or you're just sorta sad!
So coming up in an age when everyone wanted to be different. I mean truly different I still wanna be different, to stand out in some way. When I was young I saw the punk movement born, flourish and die. When I was young I got to see the Goth movement come into the world all sulky and cool and then I saw it die off slowly. I saw hair metal, metal in general, speed metal, death metal. Now all of it is gone only to come back as some sad version of its former self. The world is trying to reproduce it all at the same time but in a corporate controlled way. It's freakin' sad.
So I ask again, how do we remain apart as individuals in a world on comformity? Do we create for ourselves little worlds tailored to just how we think the world should be in the Matrix. Make the internet our own little home. Do you wanna be fluffy, flowery and eternally happy?...make your blog reflect that, your facebook comments support you and only the truest happiest, fluffiest people followed on Twitter. Are you metal instead? Are you single handendly trying to revive the goth movement. Well paint you blog, tweet your tweets, befriend the right friends and take the appropriate pictures and BLAM you're there. All the while you're really Joe Blow average Accountant down at the local accounting firm working 9 to 5 with weekends off, the beemer in the garage and 2.5 kids playing out front on green grass behind a white picket fence!
I'm probably the biggest poser of them all. Look at my blog. All dark and weird with changing titles and dreary 'gothic' posts about life and the drudgery...oh the humanity people! lol I just have a dark side to me is all and I like to embrace it at times. This is one of those times. I mean the whole time I've been writing this and putting dark, dreary and sexy pics on my blog I've also been making a Mickey Mouse cake with my twin girls for my wifes birthday tomorrow while also entertaining my 3 year old by making funny faces and running around like a chimp!!!! Yep, that's me gothic, chip mime, daddy. Wow if my kids get out of this with their mind intact I'll be blown away.
So in this technologically advanced society what will become of our identity? Will we eternally be battling out our internal identity crisis? Or will our children somehow figure all of this out and be able to balance it all in one neat little package and not be as fragmented as my generation is? It's entirely possible, after all my 3 year old already knows how to manipulate the mouse and play a Nintendo DS. When I was three we were lucky if our Gi-Joe figures had moving parts! It wasn't that long ago that my Dad, Brother and I were playing Asteroids off a cassette tape on a Vic 20 (ok it was a bit ago but still). The current up and coming generation will probably be as plugged in as the Console Cowboys of William Gibsons 1985ish book tittled Nueromancer invisioned. I know that even at my advanced age of 37 I'm pretty darned close!
Whatever the solution, grab ahold folks cuz I think this ride is just going to get faster, and scarier. Plug in, strap down, shut-up and hang on! ;-)
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