It Gets Worse

Social Media is Destroying our Souls

A few years back I was staying in Atlanta with my youngest who was looking at colleges nearby. I thought it would be nice to stay in the big, high-rise hotel downtown, be able to take the elevator to the revolving rooftop restaurant and bar where the entirety of the city was on display out the vast windows. Get the chance to take a short walk to the nearby Olympic Park, and for my daughter to experience a little bit of big city life in the South.

As we were standing on the corner near the hotel waiting to cross to get to our restaurant of choice the nearby convention center crowd was out, and about, perhaps experiencing a break in functions.

The convention that happened to be in town that coincided our visit was “Furries”.

As we stood in this staid, old, American Southern metropolis, better known for Southern Hospitality, Southern Charm, and Southern Manners, we were suddenly surrounded by grown adults dressed up in animal costumes, they were everywhere.

This was not an expected experience on a “Down South” weekend.

A “Plushy” convention, or “Furries” convention, whatever you call it, taking place meant we were suddenly engulfed by animals and anime, costumes of all shapes and sizes.

Grown adult humans satisfying their need to dress in costume and congregate in a public forum.

As I wondered exactly what I was going to tell my youngest daughter about these people now completely surrounding us I saw a “squirrel” walking directly towards us holding a sign that said,

“Nom, Nom”.

I began to laugh hysterically. They may be twisted but they retain a sense of humor.

It is good to keep your sense of humor surrounded by people who have allowed their fetish to fester into ridiculous behavior in public.

Now back in the old days of my youth, the 1960’s and 1970’s, which were not without their characters and crazies, if you had some odd proclivity you were pretty much rendered to experiencing these proclivities within the confinement of your own home. There was no avenue to reach out and determine if others shared your, uh, affliction.

I have no idea what “furries” did back then to sate their urges, perhaps they became team mascots. This was the only acceptable outlet at that time for such behavior.

Fast forward to today and the internet has given the vast advantage of instant connection to everyone suffering collectively from some deviant affliction.

In the “old days”, meaning a mere twenty years ago plus, if you had some odd fetish, of say dressing up in a “Plushy” costume and satisfying some deviant urge, sexual or otherwise, you ordered a mascot costume online and hid in the bedroom.

There was some level of “shame” involved as you absolutely knew that this desire or urge was far out of the mainstream. So you kept your secret hidden.

But now, today, with the advent of the internet, you can find dozens, hundreds, or even thousands that share your illness. And then your illness is no longer an illness, it becomes just an alternative lifestyle choice. The shame disappears, the worry that your proclivity might have some deviancy abates, and your particular urges become sanitized.

A group dynamic washes away all the shame, all the worries that it might not be perfectly healthy for the mind to indulge your proclivities and oddities, you cannot feel odd inside a convention where odd isn’t odd, it is the norm.

To quote a Rock N’ Roll album title, “What were once vices are now habits”.

Now to all of you who think that my use of language here is a bit harsh, old fashioned, bigoted even perhaps, “affliction”, “deviancy”, “shame”, well, I am not sorry.

Just because you can find a convention hall full of people who share your deviancy doesn’t mainstream your urge. Sorry, but if you have to sate your sexual desires by putting on a cartoon rabbit costume, your desires fall far outside the norm and are possibly unhealthy.

It is not always best to publicly sate your inner desires, please call up Mr. Jeffrey Toobin and ask him how showing his proclivity to the world at large worked out for him.

Perhaps your urges are an oddity you need to deal with in therapy, not a convention hall.

Not all urges should be sanitized and cleansed, some require restraint, self-control, self-respect, and a dose of reflection.

And isn’t that the entire point of this column?

That the internet has mainstreamed all deviancy.

Chat rooms and online groups have allowed people who should have some concern for their proclivities, some desire to work through their emotional issues, some reason to self-examine and wonder about their life choices now see those choices endorsed, validated, and cleansed of all shame.

Excuse me if I don’t find that to be healthy for our society.

Of course I realize that you feel no one is getting hurt by this behavior.

That is, no one but the individual who now requires a squirrel costume to experience sexual gratification.

Honestly, do you think that demonstrates a healthy mind? Seriously?

To me there is a dark side to the internet, it mainstreams deviancy.

That cannot bode well for society at large.

All I wanted was to show my youngest daughter life in the big city South. Before America becomes homogenized to the degree that a visit to Atlanta is no different than a visit to Chicago.

She saw a bit more of life in modern America than I expected that trip.

I’m not sure a history lesson of how Sherman marched to the Sea through this town burning it to the ground in a horrible act of war back in 1864 could have been more scarring or damaging to her developing mind than seeing grown adults in “Plushy” costumes and having to explain why some had a “trap door” bottom.

Welcome to our brave new world of internet connectivity.