Stanley Bing of Fortune magazine explains in the latest issue why he has no interest in being part of “the conversation.”
How many times has this happened to you? You’re with a bunch of people, and they’re talking about Game of Thrones or the new Zinfandels and you’re totally lost. It used to be because you were culturally tone-deaf or just plain stupid. But no, in the Digital Age it’s worse. Now you’re not “part of the conversation.” And you feel shame. Well, take heart. I’ve made an important decision on this subject that may just offer a path for you too.
Here it is: I don’t want to be part of the conversation. That’s right. Leave me out of it. I’ll get along just fine, I think. In fact, I’m looking forward to it.
The conversation we’re all supposed to be part of is the evanescent topic du jour—the mandatory chatter at what used to be called the watercooler. At this point, however, that vanished social locus has expanded to fill all available analog and virtual space. And now whatever makes up “the conversation” blots out the sun, casting the rest of the mental landscape into night thanks to the ubiquity of our intrusive hardware. …
… Next, the stupidity, greed, and fear that define that great and terrible Oz behind the curtain of our economy: Wall Street. It’s up! It’s down! Know why? I don’t. Neither do you. Yet people talk about it all the time, because if you don’t, you’re not part of the conversation. Guess who’ll be tuning it all out from now on? That’s right: me.
And I will particularly not miss skipping endless speculation about anything having to do with China, because it immediately devolves into a conversation about, that’s right, Wall Street again, as the great irrational engine of capital heaves up a hair ball every time anybody over there sneezes. Not to mention Greece and Spain. I told you not to mention them!
Which brings us to what’s trending on Twitter. Like, right now it’s a picture of a cute young woman who took her high school graduation picture at Taco Bell, and a shot of a floating manatee. I can live without them. I also don’t need to converse about who is being slowly roasted over the open fire of digital outrage today. Oh, and Bitcoins. You can shut up about those too, at least to me. Crooks. The Duggars? I can’t even.
