Comments on: Silly Bandz and the Currency of Information

By: Lara

Lara — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:35:58 +0000

Great article, but I’m shocked to learn that kids these days have to buy pet rocks! In my day we’d find them lying around on the ground! From what I’ve heard, kids don’t go outside anymore, so I guess these days they just buy their pet rocks online. Probably use their ipads and their mp3 rollerskates…

By: Diana

Diana — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:38:38 +0000

Brother Fenzel. I loved this. A novelty item that positions children as both guardians of information and consumers of information-as-currency is a truly fascinating object. And it probably says a lot about the capabilities of children’s minds – socially and semiotically – that kids find them so awesome: it’s not just the elephant-density factor, but the embedded meaning, and the ability to transmit that embedded meaning, or choose not to. And it’s interesting how this seemingly arbitrary item – like stickers or those clippy charm necklaces of the 1980s or TrapperKeepers or girl scout badges – are in fact a form of social and symbolic capital for the junior crowd, and their particular features (that they contain comparatively secret information) makes them a more complex version of this. I feel like I’m supposed to talk about Bourdieu’s Distinction in a really detailed and cogent way now, but I’d have to think on it much more to do that…maybe instead I’ll pitch a post about the problematic semiotics of Girl Scouts! (I’m about 87% serious about that.) Also, many loud and extensive compliments for your “quod elephant demonstratum,” revelation, which pretty much blew the lid off my own aspirations of fusing the whimsically zoological and the satisfyingly erudite in mind-bending ways. Damn you.

By: cat

cat — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:23:09 +0000

“But to the kid who sits behind me in my geometry class, my Silly Band does not represent an elephant. It just looks like a crimpy, crinkly necklace. He does not have information that I have chosen to withhold from him. That control is comforting and creates a tool with which to play status games.”

Love it. So much brilliance in one article.

Also, @fenzel Lovely picture. :) And bonus points for the QED elephant.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:31:41 +0000

Brilliant! I was going to propose an article on Silly Bandz, either on how kids are training for our consumer culture through buying and trading representations of commercial goods (I can’t buy a guitar, but I can buy a guitar construct that provides the materialist prestige of being a guitar owner), or looking at the environmental implications (if I have a collection of non-biodegradable silicone elephants, do I care less about saving the real elephants?). But I like your social information interpretation much more. That’s why you’re a pro and we’re just amateurs.

By: Chatworth Osborne Jr.

Chatworth Osborne Jr. — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:50:11 +0000

What about misrepresentation? Can one not claim the distorted bracelet relaxes to a shape preferable to it’s real form? Just like on social networking…