I am not immune to peer pressure, much as I loath it. And I wish I never cared what other people think, but alas, I fall prey to that weakness too. I don't want to be the person other people think I should be, I want to be exactly who I am. But some peer pressure things seem so silly to me and I don't understand why people get sucked in to them. Facebook is rife with examples.
I got chain letters when I was young. The first time I got one I dutifully responded to the however number of people I was suppose to send it to. I didn't want to "break the chain" and let the letter fail, thus letting down all the people before me--people I didn't even know.
The second chain mail letter I got I think I might have sat on for a few weeks or maybe months. I may have sent it on but I'm not sure. After that time, I never responded to them again. It wasn't fun or exciting to me, it was a waste of time I'd rather spend doing something in my tree house or at the creek.
Today, Facebook gives us countless ways to spend our time finding out, "which Star Wars character you are," or "what vegetable most matches your personality." There are, "pay it forward" or, "pass it on" or, "tag, you're next" type things where you reveal something about you and then you ask your friends to participate. It might be to reveal what color underwear you're wearing today (and yes, that was an actual one I saw) or it could be serious like what you remember the most about a deceased grandparent.
I'm not running them down and saying they're a waste of time. Small talk is an important component of our lives as social people. It's just that I don't want to be obligated to, "tell five things about yourself that no one knows" and share it with all the people I'm friends with on Facebook. If that's what you like to do, then you go for it. I've learned some very interesting things from people at our school that have friended me as a result.
I am outgoing. I'll talk about almost anything because I'm not shy and I'm fairly self-confident. But I prefer to do it in person, not online to a collection of acquaintances and most definitely not because someone tagged me and said I should take the test and see what brand of car matches my driving habits just because everyone else is doing it.
The Big Boy Update: A tough day. He had one of those days where he got yelled at a lot. This morning he was playing in the tub and having a great time. He was playing in the tub with toys for long enough that the water should have been getting cool when daddy went in to see what he was doing. That's when I heard yelling. He is almost three and yet he pooped in the tub. And it was not pleasant. There was lots of showering and sanitizing after that. Later this afternoon he went upstairs and slammed the door shut on his sister in the bonus room. I went up to see what was going on, only to find he'd cleared the shelves in the closet of boxes and had dumped several of the games all over the floor. He got sent to bed for a nap I was so mad. When I talked to him, I found out he just wanted to play Candy Land and he was trying to get to it and get it set up. I felt bad for overreacting, but I told him next time, he needed to ask for help.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: She likes to call my parents. All the time. My mother has figured out if the call is coming from our house and she answers but doesn't hear anything immediately, that it's my daughter. She'll tell her hello and them my daughter starts to talk to her. At first we thought she needed to be talked back to on the other end of the line. Then, recently, my daughter called and the answering machine picked up. After the beep she started talking to the machine and didn't stop until the beep cut her off.
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