Individual Eleven – The World's Cyberbrain

Since all the kids are back to school now, I was browsing through the several articles on The Beeb and noticed this. It brings back a flood of memories of my school years; I kept my head down and tried to concentrate on getting good grades. After all, as one teacher kept drumming into my head, school is the foundation for any future endeavours.

However, keeping one’s head down doesn’t always work. Ultimately, to fit in you need to conform, whether you want to or not. It’s part of the ever growing social pressures of school life; I can only imagine what it’s like now. I always thought that school uniforms were a bit old fashioned, it doesn’t leave much room for individualism when they try to make everyone look the same.

There is something you can change to rebel against such an idea, hence the introduction of the dishevelled school tie. At first I wore my tie normally, done up quite nicely and in the “proper” way. Most of the first year students did it, being newbies you didn’t know. Later though, if you didn’t have the cool looking tie setup then you were considered an outcast.

Of course, I had a helping hand when one of the girls showed me how to tie one. You have the thin part of the tie out (and done up short) and the fat part tucked inside your shirt. It was all the rage at the time. Teachers made the odd comment but never really made any real fuss over it. I was more likely to get detention after school for chewing gum in class. One and only time, I did have a gum moment. The teacher was unhappy and funnily quite perplexed; I never chewed gum in class before. I should feel slightly ashamed about this, but damn it felt so good to dissent for once!

Fast forward a decade, and the same thing applies. I wear a suit to work every day, and if you didn’t dress up appropriately management called you out. I saw it happen the person finally relented. If we fast-forward another few decades from now, I wonder if uniformity will go beyond clothing; will we see more constraints on our lives. Such as what we eat, what career paths to take forcing us to fill skill gaps and so on and so forth. There are already shackles in place within our society, perhaps we are too self-absorbed to notice.

A note to teachers, if you think clip-on ties is going to prevent a mutiny then think again. The Guardian has kindly listed ways schoolchildren are using their clip-on ties. My favourite is: Clip-on earring tie. Get two ties, clip one to each ear. Await suspension.

The normal tie - This is too boring for rebellious teenagers.

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