They like us... they really like us!

Well, actually, they just want our money. The big fat greedy bloodsucking corporations, that is. Not that they haven’t always gone after us -- which flavored-sugar-water company was it, years ago, that tried to entice cynical Xers to buy their crap by pretending that they were eschewing attitude and talking straight to us? Not that it matters which corporation it was -- they’re all the same, thinking that our bullshit detectors are just our own expressions of "attitude" and not, you know, bullshit detectors.

And they’re trying again, not by attempting to ape our worldweariness but by trying to appeal to our techno love of gadgets:

Sirius Satellite Radio said Sprint will offer some of its radio programming over its wireless phone network to gain subscribers.

"We can expect more of this kind of combination as the companies try to differentiate their offerings," independent telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan said.

[from the Chicago Sun-Times]

No, we can expect more of this kind of ridiculous combination because companies think they’re being "cool" -- and hence they think we’ll think they’re cool, too -- even when the combinations make no sense. Does anyone really want to listen to groovin’ tunes on their cell phone? This is exactly the opposite of playing 70s-era video games on your Playstation Portable -- the cheesiness of the graphics and the gameplay is the point there. But no one wants to listen to Dave Matthews or ABBA or whoever through a tinny cell-phone speaker.

And then there’s this:

Now playing at the new McDonald's flagship restaurant in Illinois: Digital-media kiosks for burning CDs, downloading cell-phone ring tones and printing photos.

But the world's largest restaurant chain is tinkering with various possibilities in technology and design to try to ensure it is a hangout of choice in the future.

[from the New York Daily News]

Hangout of choice? People hang out at McDonald’s? People want their photos reeking of hamburger grease?

Except... wait a sec. Is it possible that geek stuff like using electronics for things they aren’t really suited for, just because you can, has escaped into the wild, where those who aren’t true geeks want to play with it too? Could it be that all the popular girls in seventh grade are listening to Britney on their cell phones and printing pix of last Saturday’s slumber party while they gobble french fries?

Could it be that we’re to blame for this? That we made the geeky lifestyle so appealing, so essential, that everyone wants it?

Naaah...