Me: Uncle Eddy – haven’t heard from you in a while?
Eddy: Yeh. Sorry, kid. I had to turn that damned cell phone off for a few days. This social media crap has got me baffled, and my grandkids ain’t helping cause they’re sending me stuff from facebook, and twitter, and smapper-yapper and all that stuff. It’s crap, Charlie, just crap.
Me: Tell me your problem.
Eddy: Every time I turn on the damned news now, they all gotta tell me that “social media is all lit up” every time something happens.. Like it’s important I know what them poster-toaster people think.
Me: Well, maybe it’s the voice of the people.
Eddy: Bullcrap! It’s too many voices, that’s what it is. Way too many. Look at it this way, kid. From 8 to 6 everyday, most smart people are at work. Or lookin’ for it. So the people smart enough to hold jobs, are too damned busy to be tweety-snapping around. So you got mostly young people, even high school kids howling about this and yowling about that. So you see some stuff there and maybe it comes from some lawyer or CPA but probably it’s from some 15-year old who got nothing better to do. And why the hell do I care what any 15-year old thinks – or every 15-year old in the State of Ohio?
Me: Well, it’s true that it’s a young people’s media.
Eddy: So then what’s it worth, Charlie? Now you still do that professor stuff, right. So how much time you got to go sticking up pictures of cats and dogs?
Me: Not much, and I don’t.
Eddy: Kids do. And that damn TV news makes it worse. While Wolfman Blitzer is talking, they play them damn tweety comments on the screen. I listen to old Wolf cause he’s smart, but why should I get some damned kids opinion too? Ain’t right. If I want a kid’s opinion, I’ll call my grand-kids. You watch TV the last 2 days and see them kids at Berkeley? Cost a year’s pay to send a kid there and they’re so damned smart they start riots, set fires, and post it on the internet. I’d wallop my own kids behind they did that. You’re lookin’ at Social Media there, Charlie. That’s what it’s coming to.