The Unbearable Lightness of Insubstantial Conversations

As most people know, I make my semi-permanent residence in the EWB office. I spend more time in the EWB office than I do at home, since it's where I can get the most amount of work done. There are, however, 2 significant disadvantages to the EWB office: the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Alpha Omega Epsilon (AOE), the engineering sorority. Most EWB folks who have been in the office would agree with me on this. The "gossip girls", as I call them, are just simply so damn loud and obnoxious. The worst part: they're loud and obnoxious about the most insubstantial things.

Here is a small sample of the stupidest things that I've heard from across the dividing wall:

-"Hey have you guys seen this video called 'Two Girls, One Cup'? My boyfriend told me about it and how it's so funny and I wanna watch it." - followed by a bunch of gagging noises and "EEEEWWWW!!!"s.

-"Ok omg so I was at Joe's today, and this guy was like totally hitting on me, and he wanted, like, to give me a back massage, and i was like, well, like, no. But then he was like, rubbing my back, and i just, like, let him do it, cuz i was like so drunk."

-"What? What's this 'Windows Vista'?.... OH I didn't know something had come out after XP!"

I've heard them talk about: how they're so horny, which guys are so hot / ugly, how they are failing easy engineering intro classes, how so-and-so's a bitch, personal info about masturbation/orgasms/hookups/sexual positions. I always have to restrain myself from yelling retorts like "well you're not really good-looking so i'm not sure why he would hit on you. Now would you mind shutting up while we have our project meeting over here?"

The most ironic thing that I find, is that these organizations are supposed to be about showing that engineering girls are different from regular girls, and that they can do things that regular girls can't. But over my year-long daily observation, the only thing that they've done is to confirm every stereotype about ditzy brainless girls that I've ever heard/read/seen. I'm not kidding about the "every stereotype"...I've heard every possible brainless statement from across the wall. And not once have I heard anything I would classify as "substance".

What has today's society come to that we value insubstantial conversation more than substantial conversation? When there's more talk about ESPN or MTV or TMZ rather than CNN or BBC? There's something seriously wrong here. I fear for the future generation of America.

-FCDH