jd yates

Champagne For My Real Friends, Real Pain For My Sham Friends – Fall Out Boy

I suppose it’s naive at this point to think that anyone who might potentially read this isn’t familiar with my raging cynicism (in that unlikely event, see “Homo Flakius”, “a mediocre christmas”, “Giving up…”, and “It’s that time again…”). *steps on to soapbox* It is, in fact, that time again.

People suck.

I don’t expect that to shock anyone either, both as fact and that it’s me saying it. It is becoming increasingly apparent to me that people no longer care about maintaining long-term emotionally involved relationships. It seems that there’s been a giant priority shift brought about, at least in part, by the advent of online social networking and propagated by Dallasite elitism. With 162 million users on Myspace, and counting, why should anyone bother with working toward lasting friendships when the only barrier to replacing them is 4 clicks.

I can be as guilty of this as anyone, but have endeavored over the past year to at least reciprocate the level of involvement I get from others. This strategy has led me to both preserve relationships I thought would be short-lived and end relationships I expected to keep.

The most frustrating aspect of this reality is knowing it’s happening, and further knowing that giving more of oneself is not the answer, for it will always be met with a plateau of commitment on the other side. I would wager that no less than 25 people both came and went from my life in the last 12 months for this very reason, and they never missed a beat. Which brings me to the next sad facet of this; that most people do it without ever realizing the value of what they’re leaving behind. Without having ever explored the depths of the people around them they become increasingly isolated. Island-ism is a commonly accepted practice now, and serves as proof that this behavior has eroded all sense of community.

In conclusion, there’s clearly no merit in directly fighting the system but I hope this motivates everyone that reads it to try a bit harder. Look around and consider who you still want to be there 5 or even 10 years from now. This is all a shallow, short-sighted, and selfish behavior and stopping it starts with myself. I also hope everyone will take this opportunity to tell those closest to them how much they mean. It’s more important to them than you probably think, and your chances to do so will always number too few.

In memorium: Bradlie Scarborough Feb. 6, 1985 – Feb. 27, 2007. One of the good ones.