Old School Practices Again Unnecessarily Mimicking Technology. And Cheetos.
Two of my wife's junior high students gave her a card yesterday, and in it, one of them wrote, "Here, now you have a brand new, big bag of Cheetos, so stop blaming us for eating all of them. :)"How many junior high teachers get a card that says that, huh? You know I'm not making this stuff up.
Sure enough, the card was accompanied by a party-sized bag of Cheetos, crunchy variety. How cools is that for me? Talk about a big score.
As a kid, I actually twice called the Frito Lay Hotline, 1-800-FL-CHIPS, that was listed on the back of a bag of Cheetos. Why? For no other reason than I was enthused that they had such a number, and that it was toll-free. (Back in the day, that was a big issue. Kids were not allowed to call phone numbers that amounted to "long distance charges." That was akin to what stealing Mom's credit card might be today.) But this was a guilt-free call, and I simply had to see what that was about. Twice.
The first time, I asked whether Cheetos had any cholesterol. I couldn't have cared less. I was just looking for something to ask. I believe the verdict was that it had a small amount that occurred naturally in the "real cheese" they use. (Yeah, "real cheese." That practically makes it health food, right?)
The second time, I asked, "Who created Chester Cheetah?" The bemused receptionist stifled a chuckle and answered matter-of-factly, "Our marketing department," with a slightly raised inflection at the end as if she were asking a question herself. (Editors Note: Rich, if you're reading this, you're friend from college sold you a bill of goods when he told you that he invented that cartoon cat.) I just said, "Oh, OK...thanks."
In the end, I just had to see what a "Frito Lay Hotline" was "all about." But, that is not what this blog entry is "all about." That was just a Cheetoh-related aside to give you more bang for your buck. (Which makes it an even more exceptional value, seeing how this blog is available to read for free.)
What I really want to talk about is what the girl wrote in the card. See, apparently there was this time a while back that my wife's students were complaining of hunger and she offered them up four bags of single-serve-sized Cheetos. She had them on hand as left over prizes from something she was doing at school. So she threw the bags out to the adolescent vultures and said, "Split them up among yourselves." No wonder she gets cards from kids. No teacher of mine ever gave me Cheetos.
At any rate, in the weeks that followed, kids would constantly ask, "Do you have any Cheetos?" Of course, she didn't. The fact that she had those original Cheetos was just a matter of circumstance and good timing. So her response always was, "No. You guys ate all my Cheetos."
So, that's what the student was referring to when she said, "Stop blaming us for eating all of them. :)" But did you notice the emoticon at the end of the quote? The little side-ways smile? She actually put that on the card, and she actually wrote it sideways! How wild is that?
See, after the Internet and email and IM programs started gaining steam in the mid to late 1990s, people started recognizing the need to soften remarks that could possibly be taken the wrong way by adding a smiley face, something to imply, "Hey, I'm just joking" or "Hey, I'm smiling good-naturedly when I make this quip, so it's all good here." And the best they could do at the time was to type a colon followed by a closing parentheses mark. Our updated version of the 1970s "Have a Nice Day" smiley was basically laying down, but...hey, what are you going to do? It was the best we had, and it was easy and it worked.
So now, it's 2009 and you have a generation of kids raised in a world where Internet-speak has always been around, and even when they write the old fashioned way—with a pen on paper—and they can draw whatever they want, instead of actually drawing a smiley face that has a head-circumference and is sitting upright, they draw it headless and sideways. As if to say, "That's how smiley faces go. They are lying perpendicular to the ground so the blood rushes to one eye." We no longer are compromising our smileys so we can accomplish them with glyph-free typing; we now are modifying the very things we were emulating in the first place to match the compromised version that only came about because we didn't have a better way to do it.
What's next? Responding to funny jokes in person by saying, "LOL," instead of actually laughing?
posted by Steve @ 9:28 AM
7 Comments:
Caf = cool teacher. But, to clarify, there is a day in May where are bunch of the sheep get confirmed and are thusly out of school and this was that day. There were only a handful of students present that day, so I let my hair down and gave in to their complaints. Plus, they are a nice crew. I call them my honors class since most of them are in Earth Science (which is honors science in my school) and by default they got grouped together in my English class which in not officially honors. When you scroll down my grade book, all but a few have high ninety averages on any given day.
Ok lets clear a few things up here... She obviously left out a couple of really important factoids when she told you this story.
Yeah Mrs.Caf is right about the conformation thing. (95% of WB is Catholic, 3% is some other religion and 2% are non-practicing or atheist) So theres was like 6 of us there (including my methodist self and my friend Sam, who's a non practicing catholic)and unlike most teachers that day, Mrs. Caf actually gave us work. We had to make a crossword puzzle thing for 'Call of the Wild' Well that was boring and frankly we both didn't feel like doing it.
Anyway one of the other kids, Wasiq, started eating in class and got us hungry (in addition to being bored). My idea was to go to Mrs.Powers, a very nice, older, math teacher, who has an ample supply of candy and happens to love both Sam and me. This would solve the boredom and hunger problems in one shot. Sam was going to ask Mrs.Caf, but she wouldn't unless I did her crossword (which is another story in itself) I ended up doing her crossword, and she reluctantly asked only to be turned down. We were both throughly disappointedly and then decided to bug Mrs.Caf, not because were hungry, but because it was bored and gave us something to do.
So you see she really brought the Cheetohs thing upon herself.
And the smiley face -which was actually this :] not :), was because Sam and I were texting about what to write in the card and she said to 'include a :]' and not thinking, I wrote it that way. (plus it looks cuter on its side =P)
thats the REAL story.
the end.
Thanks for the added details!
Hey, it all makes sense to me. If I were doing something related to "Call of the Wild" in the presence of a snacking individual on a day of depleted attendance at school, I most certainly would be looking to get a hold of some food to help pass the time.
As for the smiley face, it also makes sense to me. As a regular emailer and IMer, I've been known to throw in more than my share of sideways smiley-faces throughout the years... and certainly I think any of us could easily draw a sideways one when not really thinking about it. My comments were more directed towards the quirkiness and humor of a situation brought about by our current technological world; they weren't intended to be critical of folks who might draw sideways smileys.
At any rate, the card was terrific and the Cheetos were a tasty treat shared by the whole family, so on behalf of "Mrs. Caf," thanks to both of you for the thoughtful actions that inspired this blog entry.
Okay...so I guess I'm not cool having issued work for them to do (a crossword puzzle - I must be shot) and I wouldn't let them wander the halls or bug another teacher and grub for candy. So breaking one school rule wasn't enough; I had to break like three. Okay. I guess I'll have to rethink the cookies and brownies on the last day of class.
Steve, I see what you mean about disabling comments (he said vaguely). :)
For the record, my brother was sold the bill of goods, not me--I'm just a second-hand receiver of said bill.
I don't know which is more frightening; the fact that someone actually hand wrote a sideways smiley face in a letter [and then apparently attempted to JUSTIFY said smiley ;) ] or the fact that I can absolutely see Steve making those calls to Frito Lays like a week ago, much less when he was a kid.
Yeah, those calls to Frito Lay had to be made, and I know you'd be doing it right there with me.
Oh, and despite claims about the smiley that "it actually (was) this :] not :)," it absolutely was :). I have the hard copy evidence, should people dispute this.
Post a Comment
<< Home