Has the prom tradition gotten out of hand?
Hmmmm.
Let me see.
How many thousands of languages and dialects can I say it in?
Oh well, I’ll settle for good old English.
Yes!
So at whose doorstep can we lay some of the responsibility?
My vote for the top three are the parents, the young people themselves and that good old standby whipping boy, television (in particular the purveyors of “news”).
Have we all not known of some people whose parenting skills make us roll our eyes in our head?
Have we all not known of some young people whose idea of growing up and maturing are encapsulated in the two syllables: “PAR-TY”?
And then we have TV “news.” It is “live, now, in-your-face information you need to know today; no, this minute.”
No thanks.
I think I can function quite well without knowing about whatever fringe activity is being given considerable airtime.
The guiding principle of TV news seems to be: “If it ain’t sensational, why bother showing it?”
Why people might even begin to think that the actions/activities they see on TV are what passes for normal in our society.
The overwhelming focus on TV news seems to be instantaneous conveyance of an event (I hesitate to use the word “report”), with few answered questions and some of what I feel are the dumbest and/or speculatively leading questions by the talking heads trying to pump the on-scene reporter into unfounded speculation or embellished sensationalism.
Print media are less prone to such shoot-from-the-lip sensationalizing.
(Except at grocery checkout counters.)
But print media require reading.
Not a growing trend in this country, I’m afraid.
No time for that.
Too slow!
Want my “news” now!
Hey when all that kids and parents see reinforces the fringe as passing for every-day normal, then why are we surprised that prom night is elevated to an event in which it seems that licentiousness and a few-if-any-boundaries ostentatiousness are viewed as somehow normal and desirable?
I have no answers.
But I do have concerns about our nation’s ever-shortening attention span.
