Back in my day, middle school was Junior High, and the note passing was legendary. We didn’t have cell phones, or laptops, and the internet wasn’t even a sparkle in someone’s eye yet. The effort involved in a smear campaign was huge. You actually had to create a phone chain from home to dial everyone’s number to say mean things to them. And if they didn’t answer the phone, there was no leaving a message either. Back at school, our only form of text messaging was in the guise of an actual sheet of paper with words on it. And you had to write them out by hand! Good luck reaching three hundred people while the topic was still hot! Then again, the incidents of carpal tunnel from text messaging were few and far between back then.
We didn’t have Google, or instant messenger, or i-tunes, and we didn’t even know we needed them!
Amazingly, back then we actually sat in the lunch room and talked to each other while we ate the terrible cafeteria food. We didn’t have our noses glued to our phones, because the only phones inside the school were in the office. And they were attached to the desks with cords.
Cords!
There were still bullies, but they had to rely on their brawn for intimidation, not their skills with a cut and paste message sent out in bulk to everyone in their address book.
And back in my day, your friend’s parents put a stop to the partying…they didn’t buy the liquor and drink along side of you!
But it seems like we aren’t back in my day anymore. We’re in the internet age. And like it or not, it is our fate.
But the internet age isn’t all bad. In fact, it has a lot of good to it. Two of my friends from Junior High found each other again on the internet recently, and after fifteen years of not seeing one another, they are now officially a couple! I will take just a tiny bit of the credit, because while the three of us chatted in instant messages, we were effectively passing notes back and forth much like Junior High. It was what we knew. And I may have encouraged them slightly. They are perfect for each other, and I’m very happy for them. And their happily ever after has restored my faith in technology. Without the high tech note passing, they may have missed each other in the dark, instead of riding off into the sunset.
Besides…passing my blog in notes would be so tedious, I don’t know if I would have made it this long. And I’m not planning on going anywhere, despite the naysayers and bullies. As my friend Vivian has oft quoted… “Bitch keep talking shit, you’re making me famous!”
Until the next time…I’ll be writing my blog and surfing the internet as I always do…after my kids are sleeping…where they don’t need me to stand over them to make sure they aren’t dreaming inappropriately.