Beauty and The Norm.

How come whenever a new technology or communication medium shows up like the Fonz, we have to pervert it with usage that it was not meant for? Then, it stops being so cool.

I was hoping that with every new form of communication we bridge the gap between being impersonal and actually having face time. I was hoping we'd come as close to being personal without having to be there. That, I could see as a legitimate evolution curve of societal customs. We laugh at blowup dolls, but they did accomplish this before video conferencing was able to convince us that the other end was 'real.' There are no bandwidth limitations with blowup dolls, just psi limitations.

But even in the most professional, most corporate environments, I have seen emails from otherwise successful and bright employees that read like text messages:

"hey can u bring ur report 2 the mtg? thx"

ur welcome.

"Oh em gee! Did you Facebook her?!"

Yes, I did. I thought it was more polite than feeling her up. Apparently not.

I wouldn't put it past our legal system to qualify 'facebooking' - the mark of a successful brand name is when the name becomes a verb in colloquial speech - as stalking or harassment or something that would violate the terms of a restraining order.

Oh, speaking of Facebook.

There are people who have been terminated by employers via Facebook. I think someone was actually served a subpoena on Facebook. If someone is changing their status every 20 min, they'll see a subpoena on their Wall, right?

"The 12th District Court of Appeals wrote on your Wall: ... "

"You were tagged by the Internal Revenue Service in a photo."

Lovely. Not only will they know that I'm watching reruns of 90210 and Save By the Bell in my underwear, they will know how to find me. The Do Not Call registry should be updated to the Do Not Facebook registry.

Then, we have netbooks: laptops so small they are getting close in size (and, therefore, functionality) to smart phones (not smart enough to avoid cannibalization, huh?). Soon, netbooks will come standard with 3G connections so that the carriers will still have their hooks into consumers who've replaced cell phones with 7" laptops that do Skype. We think we're evolving, but we really aren't going anywhere.

And what the hell is so "SMART" about cars that A) can't leave town because they're too dangerous to take on the freeway, B) so small that the usual load you were able to carry in your previous vehicle has to be transported by way of MULTIPLE trips, and C) are so light that two people on roller blades could push one and take off with it?

At least blowup dolls can be deflated and made to be portable; there's only one way to use those.