We've created it, now it will turn on us.

The Merchants of Cool

My wife teaches History and Sociology to high school students. A noble ambition where reward is scant and patience is tested to it's mortal limits. The other night we were talking about her Sociology class and she pointed out something to me that I had never realized before. Our society created the "teenager." Not on purpose. Because of our emergence out of an agricultural nation to industrial and beyond, the idea of big families and familiar roles has become a thing of the past. A nation emerged that gave people who were not kids but not yet adults an incredible amount of leisure time. Idle time is the devils playground. Where am I going with this? Well, with this influx of people with nothing to do comes a barrage of companies, marketers and the like vying for real-estate in their young minds. I saw this PBS broadcast 4 or 5 years ago and was reminded of it. It made an indelible impression on me as to the extent that, not just MTV, companies will research market and exploit "cool." It is 53 minutes long but well worth the watch. Shoot.....you can download it to your iPod.