I’m not entirely sure why, but I’m confident in saying that my inclination to be instantly annoyed has risen considerably over the last few years. I’m not happy about the situation, and once the realization washed over me, it took a concerted effort to not get immediately irritated.
But I was able to calm myself after recognizing the irony in getting pissed off about being pissed off. Also, it seemed self evident that choosing this state of existence was worthy of an avoidance effort.
It just seems like you’ve imprisoned yourself in a closed loop when you become angry about being angry. Closed loops don’t have a loophole if you know what I’m saying, so inevitably you’ve condemned yourself to join the ranks of the perpetually pissed off. And that’s a terrible place to be. It’s lonely I think, and it’s bad for your health.
So far I’ve managed to apply sufficient constraint so that my vexations haven’t turned into road rage or some other public meltdown that obligated everyone within earshot to take out their phones.
I’m thinking that would be a horrific situation, because one of the things that of late has been instantly pissing me off are the hordes of people that feel the need to record and YouTube every perceived transgression. So, I think that regardless of the circumstances, that the prudent action once a phone is pointed in a persons direction is to walk away. I understand that on occasion the amateur videographers may actually be trying to provide assistance. Like if someone is Kareening out of control for no apparent reason, but for the most part I’m pretty sure that the best course of action is to walk away. The social justice videographers will follow you, but you have to keep walking and not engage. They need engagement to generate views, and a video of someone’s ass fading into the distance isn’t going to get them the attention they crave.
I wonder sometimes how annoying it must be for the police when so many people think that pointing their phone at the cops has somehow empowered them to behave horribly whilst screaming about their rights being violated. Then after provoking a routine traffic stop into a felony, these same people somehow manage to claim breathing difficulties while still finding enough oxygen to screech repetitively that they can’t breathe.
So now the police have body and dash cams. Initially the concept was that the bodycams were there to record any abuse by the police on the citizenry. But now they’ve become necessary to protect the police from deceptively edited videos that distort the reality of that traffic stop I mentioned earlier.
But it’s not just the police that cause the phones to come out. They’re everywhere. In fact the phenomena has produced an entire social media genre, and now we have season three of court cam and neighborhood wars.
I know this because I spent the last week drawn into a rabbit hole of YouTube video’s that were exclusively cell phone captures of people behaving badly. I’ve made a promise to extract myself from this rabbit hole, but the allure of the dark side is strong and it’s going to take some discipline. Particularly since my viewing history has prompted YouTube to offer me hundreds and hundreds more of the same fare.
However, every now and then you stumble across a gem. I recently viewed a few video’s of fan fights at sporting events, and I have to say that a few of them were freaking hilarious. Lots of drunk people, fat guy ass cracks and hair pulling women. Also most of the battles took place in the upper seating areas and the stadium grade made for some spectacular drunken falls. I determined after video three that if you’re going to get into a fistfight at a football game then its best to antagonize the people sitting below you. Having the high ground is vital.
I think the reason I found these video’s amusing and not irritating is because there wasn’t any narrative. In fact the video creators had added music to the mayhem and the result was much better than listening to a commentator offering their insights on the various melee’s.
So, that led me to believe that narration is the root of my irritability problem with these video’s. Because once the phone comes out in any confrontation then an amicable resolve is unlikely. For some reason the phone pointing individual is compelled to provoke and incite whoever they’re filming. I guess it makes for more viral status, but it’s still weird how a somewhat sane person changes as soon as they get to film and narrate their own moment of injustice. It’s also weird how often the provocation tactic works.
So, I’ve decided that I’m done with watching people fight about parking spaces and off leash dogs. It’s my contribution to personal mental health awareness.
But I also decided to look at the whole situation in a broader context. The fact that our entire lives are now recorded has created a shift in our behavior, and I think that shift is the root cause of my increased irritability. Because as I mentioned earlier there appears to be a decline in cognitive function and an increase in deliberate antagonism both from the person doing the filming and the person being filmed.
It’s showtime.
So the whole world is getting louder and dumber every day, and we’ve created a technology where we can share the stupidity, and that’s making everyone nuts.
I think that humans are predisposed to sharing misery and misfortune. Prior to camera phones though, you had to craft a story. Now you don’t even need to think or hone your storytelling skills. All you have to do is point a lens and provoke, and voila, you’re suddenly the Wachowski brothers. Or sisters. I’m not sure.
So, I was thinking about the compulsion we all possess to share misery. For example, if I’m driving and see a squashed cat on the road I’m not happy. I like cats and the situation sucks. But I have to continuously fight the urge to share the squashed cat imagery with my wife who also likes cats. I’m not sure why. I know it’s going to make her unhappy but it’s extremely difficult to keep it to myself.
Misery loves company I guess, but when misery goes viral then we’re dealing with an entirely different ballgame. Now instead of sharing an appalling moment with friends and family, we’re technologically able to depress internet strangers en masse.
I’ve been working on the discipline required to not share squashed cat stories. It’s challenging but I’m making progress.
Now all I need to do is understand and then control the weird desire we all seem to possess to be drawn toward squashed cat stories. Or video’s.
Because whether we’re talking about an unpleasant story or a video, our participation feeds the trolls.
And I think it makes us immediately irritated.