First off, for those of you expressing how sick and tired you are of that nine-concerts-and-a-lie meme all your friends are posting?
For those of you posting slightly more legitimate posts questioning why so many people are hopping on board this meme, I have some thoughts.
I thought it was kind of silly myself. I’m also not really a concert-goer, so I knew I’d have a hard time coming up with a list of nine concerts that a) I’ve actually attended and b) anybody would ever have heard of. I didn’t read most of my friends’ posts on the subject. I also didn’t let it ruin my day, but that’s just me.
But yesterday I saw more and more of them, and a few friends saying “I couldn’t come up with nine concerts so I came up with nine [insert other thing] instead,” and I suddenly was consumed by the desire to figure out if I actually could list nine concerts I’ve attended. I started counting on my fingers, and the nostalgia was nice. And when I got to eight, I was so proud about how close I’d come — look, I’m almost cool! — that I wanted to share.
And then a funny thing happened! That post became the single most refreshing, nostalgic, different-worlds-of-friends-colliding post I’ve posted in months. Maybe longer. Certainly it was one of the more pleasant conversations I’ve had online since Bernie declared his candidacy.
My friends from all stages of my life walked through my list vouching for one concert or another — “Well, I know she saw that one, because I was there… remember how rude that band was?” Unrelated groups of friends discussed whether one is ever too old or too young to attend a certain type of concert, whether concerts in general are worth attending, thoughts about music in general. It spawned at least two private message conversations that went on for hours.
So I’d like to apologize to the people I judged for playing this game, because once again I’ve been reminded that different things work for different people. Y’all know I’ll criticize a trend if it’s harmful (see my record on, say, Kony2012 or anything to do with underwear colors and breast cancer). This isn’t harmful. It’s silly and fun and if you’re not into it, scroll past it like you scroll past my other posts on a daily basis. Don’t waste the pixels dogging on me for doing it.
