Everything "got small"

One of my favorite Steve Martin stand up routines was “Let’s Get Small.” Of course, that was back in the 70s, and he was making fun of people who did a lot of drugs.

My drug of choice is very strong black tea, or Diet Coke. After drinking way too much caffeine yesterday, I was up part of the night thinking about how everything’s gotten smaller in the past couple of years. A few examples:

• Lots of big people are truly trying to lose weight – and keep it off for good. I point to the popularity of “Biggest Loser” as not only a TV show but a brand now. The merchandising is going crazy.
• Blogging turned into microblogging and Twitter.
• The guy who developed microlending programs for third world countries won the Nobel Peace Prize. Now mobile phone companies in those countries are helping poor people to avoid banks completely and pay for everyday things with electronic funds via their phones.
• “Hyperlocal” became a word I see more and more. Now Patch.com is expanding into just about every small town, becoming a replacement for the local newspapers, most of which have folded if they didn’t already have an online presence. People are trying to spend their money at farmers’ markets and other small and independently owned businesses as much as possible, to help their immediate economy.
• The new TV we bought – an LED – is 42” wide, but about 1” thick. It replaced a 32” tube TV that not only weighed about a ton but was about 2 1/2 feet deep and just fit on our entertainment center.
• Everyone’s tightening their belts – super-tight budgets at businesses and kitchen table discussions are much more common now that things cost more and we’re not making more. Much of the time we’re making less and doing without stuff we thought we needed.
• We’re selling stuff cheap on Craigslist and Ebay, and getting rid of stuff on Freecycle. “Someone else can use this stuff, so why are we keeping it?”

So what’s the deal? The recession drove this trend.

If you become suddenly unemployed, which many people I know have in the past couple of years, your first thought is, “Bastards. I worked for them for X years and this is the thanks I get.” Your second thought is, “Now who do I know at X company that I can call and find out if they’re hiring?” No matter what size city or town you live in, you have a circle of family, friends, and acquaintances you turn to when you need something, and we’re relying on them more and more the worse things get.

We’re returning to the days when everyone in town knew everyone else in town, and their business, and everyone lived frugally because they had to. We’re forced to share more of our foibles and weaknesses to those around us, and we’ve gotten past our pridefulness to ask for help. And many of us are finding that there’s an overwhelming positive response from our support systems.

Facebook and other technological communication systems – such as texting between generations of people, some of whom didn’t even own a cell phone or laptop until recently – keep us all connected more tightly than we’ve been in years. And we’re all better for it.

I like this “front porch sittin’ ” sort of mentality. Where you can greet neighbors as they walk by your house (as more people are walking for exercise, weight loss, or just to save on gas), and often they stop to say hello and inquire about your job search, or to pick up some coupons. We’re meeting new people when they buy from us or sell something to us from an online ad. We’re going back to that person-to-person sort of lifestyle, and in the words of Martha Stewart, “It’s a good thing.” A very good thing.