By Eamon Scarbrough
The best advice I’ve ever received came from a band called Napalm Death, who I saw from the front of a huge crowd.
In between songs, the vocalist would banter, and one particular section struck me: “This next song is about the ability to think for yourself, which is not only our natural-born ability but also absolutely essential.”
It was a simple message, obviously, but it made me wonder if free-thinking is perhaps not as popular as it once was.
I’ve noticed in the last couple of days that many people are suddenly enamored with a phone game called Flappy Bird.
I have no idea what the object of the game is, but judging by the title, it sounds really obnoxious. I don’t think I’ll punish myself by finding out.
The one thing that I can ascertain about the game is that it is incredibly popular, seemingly out of nowhere. Only two days ago, a friend of mine told me how the students in a class he was teaching showed him a “hard game” called Flappy Bird. The next day, in a class that I loathe to be in, the whole room was in an uproar, shouting the praises of Flappy Bird across the room and drowning out the professor’s voice in the middle of the lesson.
Now, I still don’t know what the game is about, but the one thing I did pick up is the sudden influx of Flappy Bird players. I just wasn’t convinced that a game with a name such as that could ever be worth playing.
I couldn’t figure out why everyone suddenly loved Flappy Bird so much without assuming they were only doing it to put another badge on their trendy vests.
However, Flappy Bird is a game, and any game can be fun with the right amount of motivation, so at least some people must be genuinely playing it.
When everyone has beaten the game, people will move on. Sure, there will be plenty of Flappy Bird expansion packs and extra levels, but who has time to wait for those?
When the hype finally has run out, we’ll watch the masses flood to the next time-waster.
Trends are a fun and interesting way to see what’s going on in popular culture and also are a perfect vessel for examining why people make certain decisions.
Just why are people obsessed with Downton Abbey, anyway? While I certainly never thought I would live in a world where a Masterpiece Theatre-produced show was popular in the United States, I am pleasantly surprised to see it getting such grand reception.
I do, however, often wonder just how much free-thinking is used to decide whether one really cares about Justin Bieber.
I say that instead of loving or hating something, as is popular culture’s custom, there’s always a third option: just ignore it.