The Gap
When I was a l’il shaver, I wanted to be a cartoonist. At first, I wanted to do superhero comics, but at some point I became obsessed with newspapers strips. I moved back to comic books (before losing interest in trying to improve my art and giving up on the whole “artist” idea) and slowly stopped reading newspaper strips on a regular basis.
But having spent so much time reading them in my youth, and having come to realize just how horribly lame most modern newspaper comics are, I adore the humorous deconstruction of the modern newspaper comics. Which is one reason why I love Tom the Dancing Bug. (Here’s another reason: “Library System Terrorizes Publishing Industry.”) And why I’ve quickly become a huge fan of another comics-reading Josh, the Comics Curmudgeon. Anyone who makes fun of the bleak absurdity that is The Lockhorns is aces in my book.
But even more relevant to this blog is his commentary on this collection of technophobic comics. “Well, if I were a child, I would be less disturbed by gratuitous use of the word ‘butt’ and more by authors who think that it’s funny to admit that you have no concept of how high tech devices work. If I were around 8, I’d just be puzzled that there was anyone out there who was so dense; if I were around 12, I would just feel disgust and contempt for such fogeys.” There’s a hard truth there. I understand that some people aren’t as quick as others to get hip to the latest tech. I understand that if you didn’t grow up with things like cell phones and the internet, it may be harder for you to get a grip on this stuff. But if you’re in a profession where you regularly deal with younger people, refusing to cross the generational technology gap will, sooner or later, make you seem like an alien to your patrons. It may appear to be a bunch of new-fangled toys to you, but to kids growing up today, it’s normal and mundane. Expressing bafflement at or contempt for text messaging or computer games or MySpace is like expressing bafflement at or contempt for refrigerators or telephones or automobiles. Which is fine if you spend your days hiding in your house, only coming out to shake your fist and yell at the neighborhood kids. But if you live and work with young people, it’s really pretty freaking weird.
