“The age of infantilism”

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I wonder whether Stephen Fry knew how prophetic he was going to turn out to be when about seven-eight years ago, he talked about “the age of infantilism”. Grown men wearing baseball caps back to front, and indoors. Silly socks. And later stupid icons with puppies jumping up and down, probably designed with the age bracket five to ten in mind, but now used by supposedly grown people.

And now, in this country, greetings such as “halli hallo” and “hallöschen”. Which of those is more annoying?

Yesterday, I received a phone call (and this was one of those occasions where I was reminded why I usually keep my phone on silent – I don’t like it when it rings, and only answer when I know it is family calling from Denmark) by a person whom I am sure would categorise herself as an adult and who started out with “halli hallo”, loudly and clearly, and proceeded to rattle off name, company and reason for calling so quickly that I did not have a hope in hell of catching any of it, and then, to add insult to injury, an overly enthusiastic “hallööööööööhschen!”.

I am very sorry but I don’t like being spoken to like a five-year-old, so all I could do was hang up in disgust.