On The Death Of Modesty

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;

Never before have these words rang truer than they do today. We distill our personalities and thoughts into edible 140 character bites. Our relationships are mapped out and put on display for the world to see. With these instantaneous forms of expression the filter between one’s brain and public declaration has grown razor-thin. In a society that based itself upon modesty and the projection decency such a development has radically changed the rules of relationships between people in ways that I believe isn’t yet  fully comprehended by society.
The source of this cultural shift isn’t technologies fault. People have always been dependent upon the attention of their peers, only now is that urge instantaneously sated around the clock. With such a revolution upon us it seems that the new rules of societal mores, in my humble opinion, are as follows.

1. Conviction, whatever you say insure that you can stand behind it if gets thrown into your face later.

2. Clarity, make sure that your point is clear.

3. Honesty, With every record easily accessible there isn’t any point in hiding anything.

What makes this development truly remarkable is that the highest form of currency in our modern society is attention. In the time before capitalism honor was the measuring stick of a man. After the Industrial Revolutionand the dominance of capitalism the  ability to accumulate possessions was the measure of a person’s worth. It seems however in our post post modern times the ability to draw the attention of  the public is how regard someone’s value to society. While I would rather be rich our nation as a whole seems to value the eyes of their fellow citizens and the ability to draw a crowd is now the most surefire way to accumulate vast sums of money.  What this means for the generation who’s only frame of reference is this greatest culmination of the Information Age will remain to be seen, but the sooner those of us in the transitory generation accept this the sooner we will be able to properly grapple with this new world with which we now confront.