Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is "post-truth", an adjective used in a situation where, "objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief". It says use of the term had increased by around 2000 per cent thisyear. The spike in usage is, "in the context of the EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States". But it's kinda everywhere ... Used in context you could say: "In this post-truth era, Bishop Brian Tamaki is emphasising crazy views against certain groups of people instead of addressing factual science."
You'll never believe what this teen did next...(actually, you probably would)
A reader writes: "In the morning, barrelling down the hill to get the 5-year-old to school on time, it starts bucketing down. Teen in shirt sleeves bemoans his lack of jacket. Can we go back home, he suggests. No, you should've been organised, I say. Staunch as. (Thirty seconds later I have caved and am fanging it up the hill again). For context, I live on the fringes of civilisation and housing affordability, which is a two-hour round trip school commute each day. Vroom. Home again. He disappears through the front door. Waiting, waiting. I toot. He yells he's coming, adding how annoying he's finding me today. We weave our way across Scenic Drive and down to school in the wet and as I pull up I notice he didn't get his waterproof regulation school jacket, but a hoodie. Arghhhh! That won't keep you dry, I say. I couldn't find my jacket, he says. I swear (yes, I am a terrible mother). Then he looks in the back seat and lets out a little laugh. Oh there it is, he says ... (*Update: When I do get home I note that the front door is wide open from the earlier hoodie retrieval and that the key is still in the lock." Have you got any teenage dirtbag stories? Send them to Sideswipe.
Following the "Exciting Version" Toyota in yesterday's Sideswipe, Matt spotted this sort-of Honda in Ellerslie.
Cellphone addiction greater among the emotionally unstable
Most of us check our phones when we're waiting in line at the supermarket, or on the morning commute, or even talking to friends, but recent research reveals what it means if you're constantly staring at that screen. "A 2015 study measured cellphone 'addiction' by asking people how much they agreed with statements such as 'I get agitated when my cell phone is not in sight' and 'I spend more time than I should on my cell phone'. Results showed that emotional instability was a key predictor of cellphone addiction. The study also found that introverts were less likely to be addicted to their phones." (Source: IFL Science)
Good read #1: Elle Hunt negotiates the sometimes excruciating world of social media..."One of the most luxurious guilty pleasures made possible by social media is methodically working your way through a new acquaintance's profile, noting years of bad haircuts, weight gain and loss, and changes in job, partner and political views.After all, you reason to yourself after 90 minutes' concerted scrolling takes you to the status from New Year's Eve 2008: if they really didn't want you to see, they would have deleted it. Everybody lurks. Only the blithe let on..." Read the full column here.
Good read #2: There are apparently fourteen features of fascism according to a list by modern Italian thinker Umberto Eco, which includes the currently popular 'fear of difference' and 'contempt for the weak'. He says: "These features cannot be organised into a system; many of them contradict each other... But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it". Read more here.
