Words from WW Blog

I remember my seminary professor, Dr. David Augsburger, making the point that wherever two people meet there becomes an immediate attempt for one-upmanship. We will seek to be the more impressive person, the one who seems more important and vital than the other person we’re meeting.

With our consumption of social media in recent years the trend has taken a different path. Now it seems that people are prone to strive for one-down-manship! It’s the temptation to say something even more belittling and critical than the previous person and post. For example, one person might post that he doesn’t like a certain person. The next person agrees and refers to the same individual as disgusting, and then the next person calls him a pig. Not to be outdone, the next post says he should be roasted over an open fire. Finally, the capper, someone says he’d like to take him out behind the woodshed and beat the crap out of him.

Each post seeks to take it to a more caustic depth, perhaps to impress the others with their volatility. It is perplexing to see how low someone is willing to go in their attempt to express their opinion. Recently, a parent lambasted a school employee for following proper procedures. The parent thought their child should be an exception to the agreed-upon protocol, and went to social media to express discontent. As a result, others joined in with the assault. Name-calling and insults kept the thread plummeting downward. There seemed to be no bottom for how abusive people could be.

Social media unbinds people’s negativity and duct-tapes their common sense and decency. Words that would not be said in person are suddenly released like pigeons to unleash their droppings. I wonder how the sender will feel about his venomous verbiage ten years down the road?

It was the craze of the late-90’s. Furby, the furry toy that said things that were located somewhere between gibberish and toddler talk, was bought by over 40 million customers in a three year period.

We had one, and still have one. Our bundle of joy had been hibernating for the past twenty years in our basement, out of sight and out of mind. Since I had brought a busload of stuffed animals and one creepy-eyed doll to my school classroom, I decided it was time for a Furby resurrection, a Furby introduction to a new generation of kids unacquainted with his/her personality.

Fresh batteries needed to be inserted first. Furby demands four AA’s to get him to say anything. Otherwise, he/she simply stares at you with those huge eyes. Carol and I played around with the creature, increasing his vocabulary kinda!

On the way to school the next morning he kept making sounds every time I went over a bump. “Whee!” and giggling and party-like utterances kept coming from my backseat.

And the students met him…and were creeped out!

Despite all of their video game exposure, compete with fantasy and foolishness, Furby was too real for most of them. That is, the realness of his un-realness was spooky for them. One class tried to hide him so he wouldn’t talk at all. His language was unfamiliar. They would have been less frightened by a mouse squeaking his way through the classroom.

The toy hit of the previous generation resembled a mini-version of Chucky for them. Now, if I could only get him to answer questions in class that deal with hyperbole, extreme exaggeration!