MY FAVOURITE POLL

“Did you prefer your life as a kid at school, or your life now? Yes, No, or Silly Question?”

This (found on my school reunion page) might be my favourite ever social media poll. By the way, I think ‘Silly Question’ is in there as irony, given that here we’ve been given two sets of multiple choice, and no way at all to work out how to answer. Brilliantly funny.

‘Silly question’ could imply that the pollster assumes either (1) it’s obvious that we’ll say our lives were way better back then - that’s why we keep visiting this time-capsule of a flumpbook page, after all - nostalgia. Or, (2) we had a horrendous time at school, in which case yes, obviously our lives are far better now than when Mr Beasley was throwing the board rubber at people who hadn’t done their homework. Either way, it’s a silly question because obviously…

The fact that it’s unclear what he means by ‘silly question’ is wonderful. The fact that it’s in there as an option is brilliant. And the fact that it adds confusion to an already confusing question might just be genius.

I think (although I can’t answer the poll like this) I prefer now, because now is the time I’m actually living in, and the 1990s aren’t here any more. You only get to experience one second once and one at a time, after all, and right now it’s this one. Similarly if you were to ask me in 1991 if I’d rather be 6 years old, 45 years old or 13 years old as I actually was in that year, it would have been insane to have picked anything but 13. So that’s my answer: then was good, but now is now.

Just to let you know, the ‘No’ vote is currently winning 13 to 5, with ‘Silly Question’ in at 4. I suspect it means that people are looking back with the nostalgia goggles and preferring their school days over their current adult lives. It probably seems simpler in the rear view mirror - although I bet at the time, many of them rushed to be free of the detentions and chalk-dust in Mr Beasley’s English class.