yuppies

My media consumption is down. So is my outrage level. It's rather nice, actually.

Sometimes, though, I still interact with low self-worth people who are trying, desperately, to live up to an image they will never succeed at. You know the sort. Bleached blonde or highlighted. Straightened medium-long hair. Made-up. Trendy dress. (Bonus points if the dress is from a thrift store.) Punctuates written sentences with the letters "lol". Uses the word "like" every three or four words. Also tries hard to use SAT words like "atrocious", "perambulate", and "indubitable", but somehow only manages to use the first one of that set correctly. Needs a boyfriend (1) to justify her own worth, and (2) to prove she is living the American dream. Wants marriage from such a boyfriend, but while single, professes men don't matter except as a good lay. Repeatedly (desperately) credentials herself in terms of where she's lived abroad, what organizations she's worked for, which schools she attended, and/or who her parents are (and/or where her parents have lived, organizations they have worked for, or schools they attended), selectively choosing only to name-drop the ones that the outside world judges as impressive (like the UK and Harvard). Reads newspapers not because of interest in them, but because she should have opinions. Wants to appear as smart as she thinks she is (which is significantly higher than how smart she actually is). Pretends to know things she doesn't know -- or perhaps worse, believes she knows things she doesn't know. Almost always is past the hump of her family's trajectory in fame, fortune, and class -- her parents were above average and achieved great things; they have expectations of the same for their children; but they somehow missed the lesson about regression to the mean (or believe they are extraordinary enough that it does not apply to them and their offspring). In other circumstances, their child would be a drug addict teen mother. In these circumstances, she is just desperate to fit in, and desperate to prove to everyone and most of all, herself, that she isn't as average as she knows, deep down, she is.

I'm always faced with such a turmoil of emotions for such poseurs who are posing even for themselves. Annoyance? Sadness? Pity? Derision? May you be able to find yourself in the new year, sweetums.