Sounds Like High School Proms Have Changed

     I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my high school prom.  After fifty or so years, I can’t even remember the actual prom, but I do have vague recollections of the event.  I remember the girls getting fancy dresses, and some of the boys renting tuxedos, (I just wore my sports coat and slacks.)  I did get buy an orchid corsage for my girlfriend. The big event of the evening was the prom itself.  All of my friends were dressed up and I got to go to the dance with my girl friend.

    In all of those nostalgic movies based in that era, the parents have their teenage child and their date, pose in their fancy clothes and take their picture.   I don’t recall that happening to me before our prom, and certainly haven’t ever seen a photo proving that it did.  The dance itself, and maybe a party put on by friends afterward, were what the night was all about.

    I was talking to my sister the other day and she was telling me about the prom her granddaughter recently went to.  From her description, it sounded like the dance itself, had become an after-thought.  The main thrust of the evening was taking a lot of photos of the couple all dressed up, that could be posted on the internet.  In this case, their prom evening was hampered by a downpour of rain, but that didn’t prevent the couple from going to various landmarks in the city to stand in front of them in the rain, so they could take a photo of themselves.  I just don’t understand this whole “selfie” thing that has taken over culture. 

    During the 1980’s we used to joke about Japanese tourists who would stand in front of beautiful scenery, famous buildings, or works of art and take a photo of themselves, partially obscuring the object they were happy to prove they had seen.  That whole selfie practice has now taken over the world.  That photo of themselves is more important that the event or the place.  Take a selfie, and put it on the internet.  

    Oh well, times change like they always have.  Like most old people, I don’t particularly think things have changed for the better.  

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