{"id":76764,"date":"2014-09-15T15:32:31","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T19:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=76764"},"modified":"2014-09-15T15:37:24","modified_gmt":"2014-09-15T19:37:24","slug":"the-subtle-thief-of-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/15\/the-subtle-thief-of-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Subtle Thief of Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"selfie<\/a>

The beginning of the end?<\/p><\/div>\n

Yesterday I saw my first selfie stick. I had read of such things, but I\u2019d never seen one in the wild. It was being wielded by an extremely chic Japanese tourist who held her iPhone at, well, stick\u2019s length, her face shaded by a floppy-brimmed hat, a cigarette drooping from her lips. People tell me such sticks, or \u201cSmart Phone Boom Arms,\u201d are\u00a0ubiquitous in other countries, and I\u2019m sure they\u2019re all over the place here, too\u2014but it still seems to me that it would take a lot of chutzpah both to carry an implement so explicitly dedicated to the pursuit of narcissism and then to publicly voice-activate it for good measure. \u201cThey\u2019re all over the Vatican,\u201d reported one friend.<\/p>\n

If you prefer a more private form of solipsism, may I suggest you search for your own first name on UrbanDictionary.com? The rabbit hole that led me to this was a long one\u2014I was curious about the name Beryl<\/em>, if you must know\u2014but, shamefully, it ended in my finding such reader-supplied entries as: <\/p>\n

\n

sadie<\/strong>
A word that describes someone really cool, hawt, funny and apparently an awsome cook. She wouldn\u2019t take shit from anyone, and tends to love kids named Mike.<\/p>\n

That sadie kid is fucking awsome.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

and<\/p>\n

\n

Sadie
<\/strong>A name for any beautiful girl with a great sense of humor. Sadie\u2019s tend to be really funny and short. They are also smart and don\u2019t take crap from anyone. A Sadie is a girl that you can\u2019t get enough of and whenever you see her you can\u2019t help but smile and watch as she smiles back. Her smile is also great. I happen to love a Sadie.<\/p>\n

Boy 1: Hey, did you hear about that new girl? She is really beautiful and funny.
Boy 2: Duh, her name is Sadie.<\/p>\n

Boy 1: Did you hear the Beatles have a song called \u201cSexy Sadie\u201d?
Boy 2: Duh, all Sadie\u2019s are sexy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hours of fun await you! Or at the very least, hours of regression.<\/p>\n

Back when the Internet was young and dial-up was the order of the day, I made the mistake of looking up my first name; I remember not knowing what I was supposed to do with the Internet, or what was supposed to be so fun. Back then, one of the first hits was the site of a BSDM aficionado called \u201cSensuous Sadie.\u201d I didn\u2019t look my name up again.<\/p>\n

And then in college, reading Milton, we learned about the origins of the word \u201csensuous,\u201d and how the poet coined it specifically to avoid the sexual connotations of sensual. I thought, How dare she. And, Poor Milton. We didn\u2019t yet have sad emojis.<\/p>\n

\n

Milton
<\/strong>Freakin awesome, real tight, someone who displays desireable characteristics …<\/p>\n

Man that dude is totally Milton.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I saw my first selfie stick. I had read of such things, but I\u2019d never seen one in the wild. It was being wielded by an extremely chic Japanese tourist who held her iPhone at, well, stick\u2019s length, her face shaded by a floppy-brimmed hat, a cigarette drooping from her lips. People tell me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[15309,15127,15310,15307,15308,6743],"class_list":["post-76764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-definitions","tag-narcissism","tag-regression","tag-selfie-sticks","tag-smartphones","tag-urban-dictionary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNotes on the Selfie Stick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on Milton and the subtle thief of youth.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/15\/the-subtle-thief-of-youth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Subtle Thief of Youth by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 15, 2014 \u2013 Yesterday I saw my first selfie stick. 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