Guess What I Did Today!

We all have those "friends" on Facebook, Twitter, etc. etc. who update us on all the minutia of their everyday lives. "Havin pork chops for dinner. Yummm lol" and "Just did laundry and one of my socks is missing!" aren't uncommon snippets I come across when I scroll through my newsfeed. Do I get annoyed sometimes when I have to sift through the "Going to the gym"s and "It's only Tuesday :("s? Sure. Do I sometimes do the same thing? Probably. At first, being the Luddite I am, I blamed it on computers and the Internet and this new-fangled-technology-centric society, but then it dawned on me...

This is not a new phenomenon. People have been recording the inane details of their lives since the beginning of recorded history, starting with cave paintings of how the earliest Homo Sapiens killed their dinner- ancient versions of "Havin pork chops for dinner. Yummm lol."

These early cave paintings are spread across the continents and span oceans, before people traveled very far from home. They have been found in the dusty Australian deserts and the highest mountains in Mongolia. The need to record life events is almost as instinctual as breathing. Throughout the years, the mediums through which people etched their goings-on have evolved with technology; paintings and storytelling before writing, journal and letter writing for the affluent before widespread literacy, then journal and letter writing on a wider level. All were similar in one important aspect: they were personal and not widespread.

Then the Internet came along and changed everything. (I wonder how many subjects you can say THAT about).

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites that allow one person to display anything to the masses are really just instantaneous, widespread cave paintings and journals. Technology has evolved and so has the character of the "recording" instinct. Instead of writing down every single detail of your day in a journal, you write them down and publish them to a mass audience.

The repercussions of this "new" phenomenon come with negative and positive effects- sometimes to the extreme. On one hand, knowing what people in your networks are doing all the time makes you feel part of a closer community (this sense of community is not only the subject of another post, but serious study in the field of media effects academia). On the other hand, statuses and Tweets based on what you did last Saturday night have been known to be the cause of firings and divorces.

There are two factors we have not really figured out as they relate to this personal diarrhea-of-the-Internet: the instantaneousness and false sense of privacy. It might be in our best interest to take some time before we post anything to really think about 1. If we should post it and 2. Who might see it. Everyone, with the right resources, can see everything you have ever done on the Internet. Technology is evolving faster than our social commonsense.

So, the next time you're scanning through your newsfeeds and see a bunch crap you don't really care to read about regarding your "friends'" lives, just remember- our earliest cavemen ancestors did the same thing. We can't help it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go pick up Grant from the airport, make fish tacos, and watch some Golden Girls before going to sleep.

White. Middle Class. Boy.

If an alien landed on earth and spent one day soaking up all of the information, statistics, knowledge and pop culture it possibly could, its view of the world probably wouldn't be much different than our own.  Our economy is failing. Asians are good at math. Fire is hot. Only minorities go around killing each other.

Wait. What was that last one? Yeah, only minorities go around killing each other. Just take a look at the racial makeup in our state and federal penitentiaries. Duh. And haven't you ever heard Tupac rap? All the killing goes on in the ghetto. Everyone knows that.

That poor, misguided alien. Oh, and us.

Let's review the five most notable mass killings on American soil since Columbine in 1999 and a profile of the perpetrators. One caveat- I will neither publish any names nor photos. The reason? I think the Morgan Freeman hoax writer said it best:

You want to know why people [commit heinous mass killings]? This may sound cynical, but here's why. It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine?

Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basement see the news and want to top it by doing something worse and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster instead of a sad nobody. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you’ve just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or maternity ward next.

Couldn't agree more, Fake Morgan. The media has indeed created a sick culture of one-upmanship that needs a serious overhaul. Now back to the profiles:

1999: Columbine shooting. 39 total injured and killed

· Perp(s): White middle class boy, 18, and white middle class boy, 17

2007: Virginia Tech shooting. 57 total injured and killed

· Perp(s): Asian middle class college student, 23

2011: Tuscon shooting. 19 total injured and killed

· Perp(s): White middle class boy, 22

2012: Aurora movie theater shooting. 70 total injured and killed

· Perp(s): White middle class PhD student, 25

2012: Newtown shooting. 2 injured, 27 killed

· Perp(s): White middle class boy, 20

Aside from the Asian outlier, do we see a pattern here? White. Middle class. Boy (25 and under). OK, we've got that part down, but the question remains... WHY?

My theory is an oversimplified answer to a much more complex question, but I think it has valid roots. White, middle class folks perhaps lead the blandest lives of anyone else in the U.S. Add a little testosterone and youthful lack of judgment and, voila.

White, middle class boys are in a unique situation. They fall into the socioeconomic category wherein their parents have just enough money to give them their own rooms, providing an isolation factor; to be able to afford weapons and other ammo (thanks for the allowance, mom and dad); computers and internet through which to buy said weapons on their middle class parents' credit cards (or their own if they’re old enough); and video game systems and other informational resources (again, internet) to cultivate sick ideas and desires related to killing.

And, unless they have an outstanding skill or personality, they lack identity in this colorful nation of ours. Let’s face it- from colonization until 1975-ish, being a white male with money was the best case scenario for anyone in the U.S. Now, it’s arguably the worst (at the very least in terms of identity).

The easiest way to gain notoriety? Make international news! The easiest way to do that? Kill a bunch of people!

These kids have just enough means to afford everything with the capacity to mold them into mass killers, feel just ordinary enough to want to stand out, and have just enough isolation to carry out the task without any suspicion.

The truth is that there is no magic formula we can conjure to solve the profile puzzle of these perps and future ones. Violent video games don’t make everyone who plays them feel the need to off everyone in their neighborhood. Not everyone who was ever bullied at school buys a machete and plays butcher with their schoolmates. Wearing a big trench coat and combat boots is not required garb to acquire homemade explosives materials.

But there are a few similarities in traits that should not be ignored:

White. Middle Class. Boy.