CLOWNING AROUND

Do you remember that old chestnut your mother used to say?

You know the one she’d crack out whenever you’d done something a bit silly and the only valid reason you had to explain yourself with was that all your friends had told you to do it.

Yeah it’s all coming back to you now isn’t it; the disappointment etched into her face as you stood there and protested your innocence with such conviction, the withering stare which you knew was to be soon closely followed by a familiar declaration.

“Would you jump off a cliff just because so and so told you to do it?”

To which of course you would answer no and a discussion would ensue about not having to be a sheep following the crowd that it was possible to have fun and be sensible at the same time and you didn’t have to give into peer pressure it was better to be unique.

So by the time the majority of us have left our school days well behind we’ve given up copying every move that our associates make , forging our own route through life and not being quite so influenced by the motto “everybody else is doing it so why don’t we “.

However as you know there’s always a small minority for whom the playground mentality never quite leaves and with their biggest ally the internet as their trusty sidekick they blunder on into young adulthood and beyond following every silly little trend or craze religiously.

 Aping stupid stunts and pranks that they’ve seen someone on their computer screen do in a sad case of “look at me being wacky and zany, please like me “not ever realising that maybe if they were to come up with an exclusive idea of their own people might actually find them slightly less annoying and respect them a little bit more.

It’s actually a well known fact that the rough translation of internet prankster is massive irritant which means anyone who copies stuff that they do just to scare , intimidate and annoy others is just a milder watered down form but no less of a nuisance.

So take a tip from me, a mother, someone who’s had to utter that dear old chestnut in the past.

This virtual circus of a world is already full of clowns behaving like idiots , some of them even want to be in charge of running countries , grow up , do something amazing with your life and earn some respect an honourable way instead of just being a lemming and jumping off that cliff.