It’s almost a whole new year and rather than looking back over the previous I thought I’d take a moment to talk about some things I hope we don’t carry forward as trends in the next year:

• General Pessimism/Cynicism: One of the developments of the always online culture has been the rise of constant and needless pessimism and cynicism. Even with good news or a surprise announcement there is a tidal wave of negativity causing any positivity or even neutrality to be lost at sea. “This new movie is coming out!” immediately followed by “It’ll suck the director is s**t and the actors can’t act.” “This thing won an award” immediately followed by “it was overrated/stupid/not worth it/not as good as XXXXX thing that I like.” “So-and-so is having a sale, things are discounted 25% to 47%!” immediately followed by “When they discount more than 50% I’ll be impressed otherwise I’ll keep getting illegal bootlegs” (For real I saw a comment VERY similar to that last one just this week…) While I don’t expect the world to be full of shiny happy people (I’d have to kill everyone and then myself if that was the case) I’d like to think we could NOT automatically jump to negative conclusions right away. Though it might give 4Chan less to talk about.
• Miserable Rich Celebrities with No Abilities: I still use an old email system that has multiple news items you can select for your “home” page. You can have entertainment, politics, sports, etc. because I like to get movie and music news I selected “entertainment” and rather than get any Entertainment Weekly style “This movie is coming out” or “This band is back together” (Guns and Roses people…I’ll be there no matter the cost…) I got article after article about Kardashians changing their hair, or having arguments, or wearing clothes. Every article is accompanied by a picture with some rich, attractive, woman with no discernable abilities other than standing in front of the camera, being rich, and dating other famous people, looking absolutely effing miserable. I don’t know who has made this trend popular or why people insist on making these “celebrities” famous, but I’d like to see less of that and more of people who actually do something, are good at something, and might even enjoy what they do. One more picture of a despondent, collagen inflated, dead-eyed face might induce a shooting spree. We can do completely without them…
• Wearing Designer Athletic Clothes as Regular Clothes: Wearing your workout gear to go shopping or get gas or even to work doesn’t make everyone think you’ve been working out. Mostly it makes me personally wonder what would happen if I wore the ratty clothes I work out in to the office. It’s very American to wear exercise clothes as loungewear…and it’s a trend I hope dies with the last light of 2015.
• Screen Obsession: This one is NOT going to happen but it’s something that is becoming the epidemic of the new age. I was at a shopping center a few months ago, walking from place to place when I passed a family, a woman and two girls, sitting on a stone wall together. The mom was staring at her phone, the teenage girl was staring at her phone, the pre-teen girl was staring at her phone. A family sitting together, out together all staring at some device and really getting nothing out of it. I use my phone for a few things, but the utter obsession people have developed with these devices is getting scary. Despite it being the latest/greatest of the “information age” it certainly hasn’t made people any smarter… It’s a good idea to make sure at some point each day you detach from the mobile device for a bit. Let the battery die. Live without it for a while. It won’t kill us to actually interact with a non-glowing, behind glass world for a while.

• Fandom Superiority: This is my big one, but probably only because of the news I read or the posts I see. Star Wars is not better than Star Trek is not better than Dr Who is not better than Lord of the Rings is not better than DC is not better than Marvel. I personally prefer some of those things over others, but all of these opinions are subjective by definition. Just because you prefer Batman movies to Iron Man movies doesn’t make you deeper, more profound and just because you like prefer Tony Stark to Bruce Wayne doesn’t automatically make you more fun. Fan mash ups and “oh you think XXXXX, that’s cute” posts don’t ever actually provide any insight or value they are just ways for fans to declare what they like is better than what someone else likes. And because you read the book and someone else just saw the movie or show doesn’t make you a bigger fan. It just means you’re a fan of the book and the movie or show. It IS ok to just like the movie and not the book. There are people who are just movie fans after all. Furthermore, just because you dress your kid as Yoda, Captain Kirk, Godzilla, Batman, Spiderman, or Dr Who doesn’t make you a better parent than someone who dresses their kid in a football jersey, a band tour shirt, or their favorite designer. It just means your indoctrinating them with your version of fandom over another. Your love of Mumford and Sons doesn’t make your tastes any better than someone who prefers Motorhead. You’re just different. Fans of all media, from sports to comics and movies to music need to stop segregating themselves, accept that we all have different tastes, and limit their sense of superiority. It’s just entertainment. Be entertained…

Those are my high hopes for the New Year. I don’t do personal resolutions because if it’s not worth doing in October it’s not worth doing in January. But we at RevPub wish everyone a happy new year and a good start to their 2016!