Red pill/Blue pill, Business/Casual, Silly/Serious. You can only pick one.
Silliness is a dying art, especially as we enter our 20's, there is a new-found pressure to be 'wise beyond your years'. Secretly hoping that your extended family will hug you on boxing day and say "Wow, you have really matured since we last saw you?".
Yet there is so much beauty in being silly, and not growing out of it.
Especially as a woman, it's not seen as very lady-like to take life less seriously than others or have a super expressive face. Hence why the Botox industry was worth 11 billionpounds last year. We are scorned for sticking our tongues out at our siblings and told to keep our shirts on beneath the sprinkler although the boys are topless. We hurriedly peel off neon pink nail polish under the table during a Zoom call. Lying seductively on the sunbeds while resisting the urge to float on our faces in the pool like a starfish.
Of course, it's not only women that feel as though they have to act a certain way in order to gain respect. It seems as though young men are also moulded into being a different form of serious, the dreaded 'nonchalant' man. Sporting baggy jeans because they are just too cool to care if they flash their boxers to the room. Never showing too much excitement, a simple nod and smirk will do. Taking 2 hours to respond to a text because any quicker will make them look keen. Bopping their head in the corner of a dark basement. 20 minutes late every time, nobody questions it.
I believe that this phenomenon of serious young people is partly due to the excessive media training of celebrities in the last decade.
Cancel culture has struck fear into the hearts of PR executives everywhere, one word out of place and their client won’t have a chance of presenting an award let alone winning it. Watching Late Night talk show snippets from the 90’s and early 2000’s you can’t help but notice how freely these celebs talk about their personal relationships or shortcomings. Nowadays, celebrities hide their relationships and act irritated when paparazzi pictures are released, then they sell their wedding photos to Vogue… Old interviews breathe life into these now illusive creatures, with foreheads that move and a multitude of stories that would make raunchy headlines now.
Celebrities used to have crooked teeth and embarrassing tales which reassured the public that they were normal people too, that they grew up on a council estate and got lucky. Where are they now? One quick glance at the Wikipedia page of a fresh-faced youth gracing our screens reveals all of his sins, parents in the industry and a £40,000 per year education. You can see the flash of pure panic behind their eyes when asked a question off script. When asked to share an intimate memory, a moment of vulnerability or just to be plain silly.
Flaws are no longer taken at face value and accepted as part of the human experience, they must be disguised or cut away. Silliness is viewed as a flaw just as a pimple is an imperfection. The people within our media are painted as these perfect beings that never say the wrong thing or get too drunk on a Tuesday. When they do make the inevitable mistake of stumbling out of a bar after a fun night with friends, they will never live it down. Maybe we should all be media trained from birth; the average person is not a monotonous, robotic entity so why is it the new normal to act like one? Easier to just play it safe and shut up….
In the modern world, silliness and informality will hinder you in most aspects of daily life. Especially within the workplace. Make a joke in an interview and that's a big red line through your name, nobody wants to hire the clown.
“I'm your colleague, not your friend”.
If a person is informal and displays ‘childlike’ qualities they are mistaken for being frivolous or idle. They are less likely to take their relationships with others or their career as seriously. Yet people are so multifaceted, by appearing ‘silly’ that doesn’t directly correlate with incompetence.
There is much less room for silliness and spontaneity in a world where daily life is not all that funny. Food and travel prices are ever rising, rent is extortionate and work is all encompassing. It’s understandable, sometimes it feels like there’s not all that much to laugh about. Informal human interactions are also on the decline, people walk to work in a hurry with a head full of worries and an overpriced pastry. Unconsciously, people don’t have time to chat with a stranger or exchange a smile with a baby on the bus.
A funny interaction with a stranger can make your day, remind you that most people are kind and have their own funny little lives. I made friends with an elderly man named Rod on the train from Manchester last week. At first, I was so stressed about missing my flight that I nodded politely at his comments until I decided I might as well reply. We travelled on the bus replacement services together for 2 hours and he told me he was catching a flight to Australia to visit his daughter who was going through a breakup. He told me she had filled her Ex’s wardrobe with dead fish after finding out he had been unfaithful and he was going to help her plot some other things she could do in revenge. I thought this was hilarious and was the last thing I expected him to say. I sat on the plane and felt happy that I had interacted with him and heard the fish story. It’s a relief to have a silly, random conversation with someone you’ve never met. In a time of unknowing and grey skies, the smallest thing can make your day.
Of course, many aspects of life are serious and require a formal attitude but there are so many other parts that do not. Sometimes it’s good to sit back and think about whether something really is so serious? When you reach your old age, I doubt you will be looking back and thinking “Wow, I’m really glad I never spoke to any of my co-workers and got really good at Excel.”
