You know, b/c I read a few posts yesterday afternoon, I was thinking last night about how much life has changed.
When I was in college in 2003, from Nowhere, Mississippi, I somehow uncovered BWW- I have no problem saying it was divine intervention for me.
And so I joined in 2003, only to have to re-join once my college email address expired. And I just sat back and watched and "listened" to all these insiders and old-timers dish the scoop, and I learned a lot. I learned what a standby was and who Deena Jones is. I learned about wig lace and pin curls and that Carol Channing is black. I found out what a sit-down production was and that pre-recorded tracks were included in POTO. I learned the definition of an 11 o'clock number, that Kristin Chenoweth wore a wig in her Tony acceptance speech, and how to pronounce "entr'acte" and "D'amboise". And I learned that stereotypes are just observations that people have grown tired of. I'd roll my eyes occasionally but would easily parse out the learning material and move on.
And here I am, fifteen years later, still in Mississippi, still checking the boards daily. There are some posters who have and continue to make me laugh, kiki-ing w/ myself out loud right then and there. There are those whose screen names make me cringe at their sight, time and time and TIME again- I will not even check a thread if it has more than 20 posts...usually. There are still a few old-timers around who tell it like it used to be, especially this past year - how delightful. And I don't often post.
But I do often roll my eyes at so many posts and what they say and the way people say them. And I think, Good Lord, this person is like a child! And then I have to stop myself to realize that, yes...they really might be!
There are LITERAL children here who have accounts and who post, and it's sort of taken me a while to catch up to that fact. That did not happen in 2003! I have often thought, The Hallowed Halls of my alma mater have become polluted with ill-conceived opinions delivered with the poorest of grammar, usage, mechanics, and spelling by TERRIBLE people! It's easy to think the worst of people- believe me. But you can also change your mind. Maybe "the worst" is just "the 'now' in a very early existence". Maybe the "decline of humanity" is an unrestrained emotional outburst of a person who may not be independently allowed to get his or her ears pierced at Clair's Boutiques.
It's funny to me - that just never used to be a consideration for me here. I know kids have internet - I am a former HS teacher, but I guess it just took me a while to realize that the internet, for better or for worse, for young and for old, sometimes and somehow equalizes us all in a way that other parts of life don't.
This latest incident really won't affect my usage - as I said I rarely post. But it does fascinate me how life has changed and how I see those changes coming about.
I will still be checking in everyday as I have for the past 15 years. I'll still cringe. I'll still roll my eyes at the same one-note posters. And I'll still enjoy those posters who have me snapping out and kiki-ing in my hoop skirt like I'm Joan Crawford taking over Tara.
But I do think it will be helpful for me to keep in mind that what keeps us anonymous and separate is the thing that really brought us together to begin with.
