Social Media Replacing Graffiti

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Jim Stewart in Dallas, Texas.

Hi, Jim. Welcome to the show. How can we help you?

Great. Thank you.

Well, I’ve noticed that a particular type of human communication is disappearing.

And I wonder what you think about it.

Specifically, graffiti writing on restroom walls is not nearly as prevalent as it once was.

I’m out and about all day in my car, office buildings.

I go to gas stations, warehouses, department stores.

And I noticed not long ago that the restroom walls were clean in this particular facility,

And it was a gas station where usually it’s a prime target for graffiti.

And so I started doing a little bit more scholarly research and paying attention,

And I see that there’s very little writing on restroom walls anymore,

Not nearly as prevalent as it was just a few years ago.

How interesting.

I’m wondering what you think about that.

I think you need to go to a lower class of joints.

Well, I otherwise have a life.

That’s a fascinating point.

You know, I have not seen much either.

And in fact, I went into a restroom at a restaurant recently, and they had chalk on the walls,

Specifically so people could put graffiti on there.

And I remember being kind of jarred by that because I don’t see it anymore.

Yeah, maybe it’s a trend.

It’s certainly, I don’t know if it’s a lost American art form,

But I don’t know if we can cry about this very much.

I don’t know, but Jim, do you think that people are finding different outlets

Through social media or something?

Well, my theory is social media is taking the place of that particular form of communication.

If you look at social media, it’s the same basic, mostly the same basic types of communication that you see on restroom walls.

Specifically, the most prevalent topics are religion, sex, and politics.

And you see that a lot on Twitter and Facebook, and some people are not very discreet about it either.

So it’s not nearly as anonymous as it would be if you’re communicating on a restroom wall.

But I think the topics are basically the same.

That’s a good theory.

I don’t know how we’d ever prove that, but it is a really good theory.

We now have a place to release all the little goofy things that we’d otherwise, or angry things that we’d write on a bathroom wall.

Yeah, yeah, just a way of saying, I was here, look at me.

And I think the other thing, too, is, I mean, not that I made a practice of writing on bathroom walls, but I send a lot of texts from bathroom stalls.

Many people do.

Don’t you?

Yeah.

You’re a constant companion there, right?

Well, I don’t know about constant companion.

How many times have you gone to the restroom and realized you didn’t have your phone and went to get it before you did your business?

This is the way we live now.

Yeah, I think it’s—

This is not something I plan on—I don’t plan on doing a really exhaustive research on this.

I have asked other people.

If you do want to read exhaustive research on this, Jim, there’s a book written by Alan Walker Reed.

It was originally published in Paris in the 1930s because American publishers wouldn’t touch it.

Alan Walker-Reed was a great lexicographer.

He traveled around the country and recorded the graffiti.

He wrote it down and made a study of it.

It was eventually published in the U.S. under the title of Classic American Graffiti.

And if you look for that name, Classic American Graffiti, you’ll likely come up with the book.

It is an astonishing read.

One of the most amazing things about it is how consistent graffiti has been over the years,

Even though there’s not as much in the restroom stalls as there used to be, you would still find some of the same poetry.

Wow, I thought I was the only one that had too much time on my hands.

Well, you give an academic a grant and some spare time, and they’ll study just about anything.

Well, somebody needs to do a modern day.

I’m going to pick that up.

Yeah, we need a new one now in the age of social media.

Oh, don’t we?

Yeah.

Well, I think that’s what we’re looking at.

I think certain parts of sites like Reddit and FARC and some of these Facebook groups,

These are kind of the place where we share the goofy stuff.

We write the little dogger roll in order to entertain others, right?

Well, you get a much bigger audience.

And I think the repetition that we see there is almost identical to what happened in the bathrooms as well.

Like you would go into bathroom and bathroom after bathroom and see the same little rhymes, the same little jokes.

When I was growing up as a kid, my father worked in a train station, and there was an Air Force base there.

And there were people from all over the world that would come through there.

And even the language on the stalls was – some of it was in foreign languages.

Oh, really?

You know, that was a significant part of my early education is reading things on restroom walls,

And I had no clue that existed in the world.

Well, Jim, I think we need you to continue collecting data for us.

Well, okay, I’m your man.

Okay.

I’ll let you know what I find.

Yeah, please do.

Just post it on our Facebook page.

Well, thanks for calling.

Bye-bye.

Great.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about the graffiti.

It’s not the big murals that people are painting.

We’re talking about the stuff on bathroom walls, the little messages to others, not the crude things, but the funny things, the jokey things, the memorable things.

877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.