Taylor Swift accepts the BMI Taylor Swift Award at the 64th annual BMI Pop Awards in May. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File) Every week, I answer a question from the previous Monday’s chat in the Wednesday edition of the Act Four newsletter. You can read the transcript of this Monday’s chat here and submit questions for the July 25 chat here. This week, a reader is afflicted with what they have the self-awareness to recognize as “Get Off My Twitter”-ism: I was scrolling through Twitter yesterday, and there was a lot of noise regarding the Kim K, Kanye, T Swift Snapchat controversy. I couldn’t care less, and as I started seeing more of it, it made me angry. I’m out of the demo for Snapchat usage, and I generally detest Kim K. and Kanye, and sometimes Swift too, so maybe that’s the reason. I’d rather watch kids playing Pokemon Go than reading or seeing more of this nonsense. I’m 31, so I am not elderly by any normal standards (though by the rules of the industry I cover, I am basically eligible to be packed off to a home), but I have begun to develop several small theories about what things make me feel as if I am old. And the confluence of a subject I don’t care very much about with a medium that I find confusing and disorienting is a quick recipe for making me feel dumb and out of touch. I kind of understand some of the legal issues at stake in the latest iteration of Taylor Swift’s escalating feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West because my best friend is married to a lawyer who emailed me about them, and I have successfully appeared in Snapchat. But as a master of neither that subject nor that form, the whole story makes me feel vaguely itchy, or like I’m trying to comprehend a complicated story someone is telling me in a language I was once fluent in but have since forgotten. And I suspect that’s what happened to you, dear reader. Now, it’s entirely possible that mass culture is on a path to utter inscrutability, and I will end up wandering the post-apocalyptic wasteland with my kitchen equipment strapped to my back, feeding my family by cooking for people too busy to tear themselves away from Snapchat and telling stories of a time when narrative fiction existed. But I suspect that both the Swift-West feud and Snapchat are not the entirety of our future media landscape. And whenever you get too itchy, just remember: people are trying to distract themselves from this incredibly miserable election season. I think we’re all feeling grouchy, so be forgiving of yourself. And remember, you could always be this person. | 