Saturation

They say the mind of a child is like a sponge in that it soaks everything up. It's all nice until you're older and the sponge is just a heavy, over-saturated mess. 

When I was younger, it always frustrated me that my elders didn't seem to keen on discussing "complicated" ideas. Now I understand why. When you're just a kid or a teen, there's really not a lot on your plate so you can consume all the new ideas you want. You've got the time and the energy. As you get older however, both these resources diminish along with your patience.

It's not that old people are incapable of learning, it's that they become choosy of what to learn. Time and energy are at a premium so at a certain point, it becomes a time/energy calculation on whether or not to entertain a new idea. What's the in thing nowadays? How about the concept of say, transgenderism for example. To learn all about this new thing, along with its rules and lingo, is taxing on a geezer who only just learned how Twitter works. "Is it really worth my time to ruminate on this?", one might say. Then you have to compare the value of new experimental knowledge versus old tried and true knowledge. Why would you want to learn all about these new, confusing genders when you and your generation got along fine with just two, and maybe the occasional gay here and there? 

Sometimes new knowledge comes with too many negatives. It's not worth learning about international politics, for example, when all it does is make you frustrated upon learning how helpless your country really is. Current events? Too depressing! Just give me the bullet points on who ate bullets this week. Besides, don't we have allegedly competent people in government whose job it is to keep track of these things? 

As another example of things being more trouble than they're worth, social media. If all social media did was feed your envy and anxiety over the lives other people are living, why get into it? As you get older, you ain't got time for that shit. It's not like in high school where you have all day to gossip and make others miserable.

I think I'm slowly but surely reaching the saturation point. Technology is making everything move in such a breakneck pace. Every week brings a new shiny thing we're compelled to ogle at or some new outrage to get worked up on. Everyone is pushing something, whether it be a product, a cause, or their own brand. Nuts to that.

I'll take my own goddamn time.