Zoom

Things are moviong too fast. We live at the end of history because we are too self aware of how we live, too metanalytical of our own lives so there is no incubation period. We no longer have to develop any hindsight after a period of time imbued with reflection and growth. We are instantly aware of our own position int he cultural flow.

We live at the speed of the internet. Ideas are hatched, proliferate on the fringes, are adopted by the mainstream, become wildly popular and then are overexposed faster than is reasonable. The meme is born, flares up and ends up on a mug or t-shirt before it has time to develop into anything with staying power. As such, our culture stops developing any real personality. We have become the generation that will have as its signature simply that a million unmemorable ideas began during its tenure. I remember the fads of my childhood; each new slang word stayed under the radar for long enough and only after that time did it pop into more pervasive usage. Now, a twitter fad is catalogued on the same day it becomes a trend and with a day or two it is gone. What will this generation be able to tell its children? What are we seeding our future nostalgia with? Basically nothing because we aren't giving our present time to develop organically.

Slow down and let the tension grow. Cultivate it carefully and then release it upon the world so that everyone can put it in a larger cultural context. Instead, we have so much going on so quickly that we have nothing.